Yuukei Tomorrow
by Valhalla Time
Summary: High school is hard, but a certain girl named Takane is ready to give her all to enjoy every second of it with her best friend! ... High school is hard, but a certain boy named Haruka is determined to get through it while not getting driven completely insane by a total idiot. /Reversal AU!Yuukei Yesterday for Touketsu Project.
1. I Saw The Sun And It Glared At Me

**Chapter 1: I Saw The Sun And It Glared At Me**

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 **Was originally planning to publish this on the 15th because of daze day and all, but oh well. Writing takes time.**

 **I have a feeling that this will be a really fun fic to write anyway.**

 **Thanks to everyone who's been reading these fics, I appreciate it more than I could ever say.**

 **So let's get started. Please review if you've got the time! :)**

 ***note: I literally looked up narcolepsy on google for this chapter, straight off of Wikipedia. If any of the symptoms are wrong, please tell me.**

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Once upon a rather recent time, there came a certain day.

A normal, ordinary spring day where the air was crisp.

The blue sky was clear as could be, and the sun was beating it's hellish rays onto the earth as if it was summer instead.

And one particular fifteen-year-old girl was running across the hot sidewalk as if her back was on fire and only the bland water from the nearby high school water fountains would be able to douse them.

Her heart was beating a steady thump, thump, thump and her breath coming out ragged. "Hah, hah... j-just... just a bit more... I can still be there on time...!" She checked her watch. 8:25 "Ahhh! This is bad! Bad bad bad!" She yelped in frustration, her raven-colored twin-tails bouncing up and down with every rushed step of her aching legs.

Desperate not to be late, the girl didn't stop her sprint, no matter how her body screamed for rest and her brand new uniform began smelling of sweat.

She had to be there on time; it would do her no good at all to be late for her first day attending high school. She would be branded as 'Enomoto Takane: The Girl Who Never Shows Up On Time' for sure! While it was way better than 'Always Sleepy Takane' (courtesy of her oh-so-nice middle school and elementary classmates) a nickname like that definitely wouldn't help her make any friends.

Takane supposed that the only one to blame for her tardiness would be herself, however; her grandmother _had_ told her many times not to stay up so late playing all those video games. She winced at the recent memory.

 _"But Granny! I just unlocked a bonus level; I might lose my luck if I stop!"_

 _"Takane_ , _tomorrow's the first day. You need sleep more than other students, you know that."_

 _"I know, I know! It'll be quick I promise! Please?"_

 _A hand was brought to an aging forehead in exasperation. "Whatever will I do with you Takane? Fine, but don't come crying to me if you're late tomorrow and your teacher scolds you."_

 _"Thanks, Granny!"_

To be fair, the bonus level itself _had_ been quick... and so was the next one. And the next one - she had lost count after seven. By then her eyes had drooped so far down that she was left snoring on top of the game system. It wasn't even her narcolepsy that knocked her out, but her body's actual need for sleep.

Luckily, her grandmother had already left to go grocery shopping when Takane finally woke up in the morning and wasn't there to berate her any further. (She just left a note saying, _'I told you so.'_ )

 _I'll apologize to her later_ , Takane grimaced and sped up her run.

Despite how tired and panic-stricken she felt, with the building of the school became clearer and closer, Takane's breathing became a bit more relaxed as excitement filled her to the brim.

 _I can't believe I've already made it to high school, even with all my mediocre scores. I'm lucky that I'm not completely stupid and didn't need to repeat any grades._

Finally, _finally_ reaching the school gates, Takane all but collapsed onto the ground, struggling to quell her rapid-fire heart. There wasn't any moment to waste, though, and she quickly fished out the paper with her assigned room number and began a jog into the school to look for it.

There were still a few students walking around and scurrying to their own classrooms, giving Takane a flooding rush of relief; maybe she wasn't as late as she thought.

...huh, that was weird, why were some of them backing away when she came near? She wasn't going _that_ fast...

Skipping in a rush by some windows, she got her answer. "Agh," she promptly groaned. Wow, her face looked pretty scary drenched in sweat. No wonder people were avoiding her. This sucked already.

Takane shook her head to stop the thoughts; did it even matter really? Those people probably wouldn't be her classmates anyway.

 _Classmates_... she felt the spring return to her step as her mind wandered just a little. _Don't they say that these three years are the best in a person's life? Filled with drama, friends, and fun? I'm not too sure about the drama part, but I'm all for the friends and fun. It'll be much easier than before right? I mean, this time I'll actually be in a big class full of people who have conditions just like me!_

Takane smiled rather hugely at the thought, almost so much that her grin nearly blinded her and made her slip past the classroom with the same number as on the paper.

 _Here it is! s_ he thought gleefully. Smoothing out her plaid skirt and plain cardigan, Takane prepared her best bow along with her friendliest voice and turned the knob.

Takane stepped into the classroom and instantly bowed respectfully. "Hello? Sensei? I'm so sorry that I'm late, I just had... a lot to do last night! it won't happen again I promise." She stood there, head down, waiting for her new teacher's (hopefully not too angry) response.

"..."

"...um, hello? Sensei?"

"Don't worry," came a sudden voice, calm and much younger-sounding than an adult's voice. "Although you're almost late, Sensei isn't here yet. There isn't any need to be so nervous or jumpy."

Oh, what a relief! The very heavy weights of worry dropped from Takane's shoulders. She started to flip her head back up to scan the room for the person who had spoken. It had definitely come from a new classmate who was already seated with the rest of the class who had gotten here early. _Ah,_ she was so excited-!

She opened her eyes fully, "Really? I'm lucky then, thanks! I'm Enomoto Takane by the way, nice to meet, all of-" -then dropped her school bag unto the floor in shock. "...you."

Blinking once - _this classroom looks waaaay smaller than what I expected._ If she hadn't known any better, she could have probably mistaken it for a broom closet. She glanced at the walls; tattered posters were hanging off them, most of them not displaying any information or knowledge but rather really old student art. Stacks of chairs and worn out old tables were placed all around the room, along with other things that seemed to have been pulled from other classrooms and stuffed in there.

The only thing even remotely uplifting about the room were the windows. Unlike the classrooms she had rushed by to get her which usually had three sets of window panes at one side of the room, this room had one set of much larger sized panes placed right at the front. A large swath of sunlight poured onto the floor from it.

Blinking twice, her gaze followed the light - zeroing in on the desks. While there were only two of them, they still seemed to be the only things positioned properly in the room and not scattered about. One desk was already housing a student: a tall black-haired fellow facing forward with his back toward her.

...no way, _no way!_ There was no way that this was the whole class. Picking her bag up tenaciously, Takane walked further into the room towards the boy at the desk.

"Um, sorry to be so upfront but... there are more students in this class, right?" she skittishly asked while peeking at every nook and cranny of the tiny room.

Still not turning around to look at her ( _rude,_ Takane couldn't help but think), he replied coolly, "I'm afraid that we're the only ones."

"Are- are you sure? Really, really sure? I mean there's got to be a few other students in this school with, ahem, conditions too right?"

"As I said before, yes, it's only us two."

"...are you really, really, really sure?"

"YES, I am," he snapped, yet still didn't turn around.

Flinching at his irritated tone, Takane stood silently where she was. Before long, her cheeks gradually burned into a disappointed scowl and she plunked into the empty desk. This day was definitely not going as hoped. " _Agh,"_ a whine irrupted from the back of her throat before she could stop it. Could anyone blame her really, when all the fantasies she had dreamed up over so many weeks about having high school friends and companionship were crashing into each other within seconds?

Before she realized what she was saying, it had already left Takane's mouth. "That's not fair. I wanted a big class, not just one other classmate. Why couldn't there be more handicapped kids born around here? Would it be too much to ask for a few car accidents or something to happen..."

She clamped a hand over her mouth, immediately regretting her words. "No, no, no, wait! I-I didn't... that came out wrong...-"

"That's not a very good thing to wish for if it's only so you'll have more classmates."

Twisting her head towards him, she watched with a guilty heart as the boy finally turned around to face her.

And he was glaring.

"I'm quite sure most people would actually say that having only two disabled people in an entire school would be a good thing. Don't go wishing misfortunate unto people for your own sake."

Feeling her spirits sinking lower and lower, Takane squirmed and fidgeted under the gaze of his sharp, judgmental eyes. However, as she took in the boy's appearance, she was able to momentarily forget about how bad she felt.

While his black hair looked even darker than her own, his skin was much, _much_ paler than hers; he almost looked like a ghost. His eyes were dark and steady, and just underneath his left one was a small, but still very noticeable birthmark. He looked pretty focused and serene, totally unlike her, as Granny would be really quick to point out.

 _He's kinda cute_ , Takane thought bashfully, more embarrassment leaking into her already very remorseful words. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean it."

"Hmph, let's hope you didn't."

As he began to turn away from her and back to whatever he had been doing previously (was that a sketchbook he was holding?) Takane riskily tried to lengthen their conversation. After all, it was her first one with her first (and sadly only) high school classmate. "So, uh, what's your name anyway? I told you mine," she blurted out awkwardly.

"Hmm? Ah, it's Kokonose Haruka," he answered swiftly, his strong tone replaced by a softer, more neutral one again.

"Kokonose _Haruka._. hah..." Takane truly was terrible at controlling herself, failing to stifle the giggle she let slip out.

Haruka squinted his eyes at her quizzingly. "Is something the matter Enomoto-san?"

"Hehe, ah no, no sorry! Nothing's wrong, it's just...-" she scratched the side of her face coyly, "-...'Haruka' is usually a name given to girls."

"It is?" He tilted his head to the side as if this was completely new information. Suddenly, his eyes began to narrow again. "Are you making fun of me, then?"

Takane's hands flew out in front of her and she waved them in a frenzied apology. "N-no way! I didn't mean it as a bad thing, just that I don't know many guys named 'Haruka.' It's not a bad name at all! Sorry for laughing."

She stuck out a hand towards him, hoping to erase the scorn on his face. "Pleased to meet you Haruka! You can call me 'Takane'; since we're classmates now, there's no need for honorifics right?" She grinned as best as she could, despite still feeling significantly downhearted.

"I... suppose not." Haruka slowly reached out and lightly shook her hand, which Takane returned eagerly. "It's nice to meet you too, Takane _._ "

"That's the spirit!" Takane exclaimed. Satisfied with how their interaction had gone, she proceeded to start setting up her desk for when their teacher would eventually turn up. Once she had prepared and put everything in place, she spared another glance over to the boy next to her, deciding not to sit down just yet.

Feeling confident so far, she asked the question she knew she'd have to ask sooner or later. "So Haruka, since we're both in the 'special education' class, that means you have a condition too right?"

The brisk flow of his pencil to the sketchpad ( _I knew it!)_ stopped suddenly and he swerved his head towards her much quicker than she was expecting. "Yes, what are you getting at?" he asked with another set of cold eyes. Takane's hair went spiking up when she heard the sharp sound of his annoyed voice come back.

"Ack! I- I didn't mean anything bad! I just wanted to know what it was, because we'll be classmates and all, aha, ha..." She twiddled her thumbs and pulled at a twin tail. How did it get so tense again? She thought they were on good terms already...

"I'll even go first!" Takane raised up a finger and pointed at herself. "You see, I've narcoleptic."

"Narcoleptic?" Haruka repeated and paused as if trying to remember what it meant.

"Yeah, so I've got narcolepsy."

"Doesn't that mean you just sleep a lot? Is that really enough to count as a disability?" he accused aloud. However, it didn't faze Takane in the slightest; she had heard it dozens of people so many times in the past already and had been taught what to say in response a long time ago.

" _Actually_ ," she began to recite, "it means that I've got a chronic neurological disorder involving the loss of the brain's ability to regulate sleep/wake cycles. So uh like, I can fall asleep no matter what, if the surroundings are relaxing enough. I have to take medicine for it or else I wouldn't be able to control when I'm awake at all. "I used to fall asleep in class all the time before, haha."

Haruka cast down his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know how serious it was. I didn't mean to sound ignorant or-"

Takane quickly interjected."D-don't worry about it! It's not too serious actually. Sure, there's a bunch of other stuff that can happen, but usually, I just feel drowsy most of the day. Also, I take medicine for it, so it's all good! At worst it's just really annoying and made me fall asleep in class a lot, haha." She put on an encouraging smile, wanting to put him at ease.

"I see, then," Haruka muttered. "I'm glad, I guess."

"Thanks hehe, but now it's your turn~!" Takane pointed at him and winked humorously (or at least that's how she wanted it to be.) "What's your condition?"

Haruka frowned and shifted his eyes out the window. "I'm suffering from a heart disease."

Eyes wide, Takane brought down her hand and dropped her smile. This time she didn't even about filtering her onslaught of questions first. "Woah, you for real? What kind of heart disease? Is it serious? How long have you had it? What's it called? Do take any med-"

Haruka brought his pencil down on his desk with a forceful thud, and just like that, Takane knew she had messed up again. " _That_ is none of your business,  Enomoto-san. Please don't ask me anything else about it." Haruka said, biting voice returned and matched with another scowl directed right at her.

Shaking just a bit, Takane slowly sank down into her seat. "...ah, I'm sorry.."

Haruka exhaled and said nothing else to acknowledge that he forgave her, turning his eyes to his drawing once more and not looking back up. For once Takane could find no words to blab out and looked away too. She really shouldn't have said anything after their initial interaction, she knew.

Resigning herself to simply wait for their sensei in silence, Takane brought out her iPod (given to her by her parents on her birthday last year, one of the last times she had seen them in recent memory). She began playing some random song and slipped on her favorite headphones (given to her by Gramps during that same birthday, one of the last times she had seen him alive at all) in hopes of blurring out her discontent.

But as always, she was herself and couldn't control her last impulse. Peeking from behind her straight-cut bangs, she peered at Haruka just one more time. Her eyes fell upon and quickly drank in crow-colored hair, whiter than snow skin, and the small, almost endearing, slant of his lips, which could probably make a very nice smile if he tried. Takane found herself wanting to see it.

 _Huh, he really is kinda cute,_ she thought again, strumming her fingers on the desk in time with the music trilling in her ears.

* * *

Before Takane could even blink ten times, her first day at high school was over and the bell had rung to send them out. Their sensei (aka "The Sensei Who Had Been Ten Minutes Late On The First Day) had bowed to them and told them how excited she was for the school year before walking out of the classroom. _She's a bit bland and her face is pretty forgettable, but I like her,_ Takane reflected.

Packing away her headphones along with first day assignments (ugh) Takane slung her bag over her shoulder and looked out the window at the orange-tinted clouds, hinting that the evening was just a few hours from arriving. Thanks to the enormity of the glass, it made their view of the schoolyard and the sky above spectacular.

To her delight and despite her rather crushing disappointment in the morning about their small class, the rest of the day had been quite nice.

Haruka seemed to have eventually forgotten about her insensitive questions surrounding his illness as the hours passed, and they even talked a few more times throughout the day, some Takane could even label as pleasant! She brought her hands to her cheeks: her face heated just by recalling the memories.

Though soon her face was glowing for a different reason as she remembered the actual best part of the day: _she hadn't fallen asleep once_. Not once! Maybe it was the new medicine from her new doctor? She couldn't remember her name, Ayaka something? It didn't matter right now anyway, right now Takane wanted to jump for joy at such a success.

Still wanting to make the day end even better while also getting something rather important off her chest at the same time, Takane looked back into the classroom for Haruka. Luckily, he was still in the process of packing away his belongings and homework.

"Haruka!" she called. She did her best not to redden as he looked up at the sound of her voice and brushed some hair out of his face.

"Yeah?"

"Want to walk home together? I mean, as long as we live in the same area and you wouldn't mind some company."

His answer was immediate. "I'm sorry Takane, but I take the bus. My home is too far from here to walk on foot." With that, he stood up on his long legs (another thing she found she liked about him) and headed toward the door to leave.

 _Ahh man, this will make telling him this harder now._ "W-wait then! I have to tell you something before you go."

Haruka stopped his steps and turned back. "Alright, what is it?"

Takane took in a very deep breath, steeled her nerves, clamped her hands into tight little fists and looked him in the eyes as hard as she could. _You can do this, you need to do this. N_ _o going back._

"I- _I like you Haruka!"_

Slamming her mouth shut again, she closed her eyes and waited for what he would say next.

"...what."

"..."

 _"What?"_

"Y-y-you heard me! I _like_ you!" Takane opened her eyes and tried to cover her definitely red as a tomato face.

"..."

" _I-I-um,_ I watched an anime or read something somewhere, I dunno, that said you have to confront stuff like this the moment they come or else it gets really complicated and weird for everyone and I wanted to tell you as we walked home but then you said you don't walk home so you know, I thought it would be best to tell you now, _you know..."_

Takane cringed as the avalanche of words crashed from her mouth with no way to rein it in. She clasped her hands completely over her face. "So... there you go. You can reject me now, it's fine."

"..."

The clock hanging on the wall ticked second after second, Takane listening to every one of them.

"...I'm not rejecting you."

Her head shot up from her hands, total shock written in her expression. "W-wait! Does that mean...? Are you accepting my confession!?"

" _No_ , I'm not accepting it either."

"What does that mean then?" Takane stomped a foot on the floor. Already it was so unnecessarily awkward and weird, she really shouldn't have said anything. Why, why, why did she say anything...

Her newly revealed crush brought a pale hand to his equally pale forehead. "It's just, I mean- why?"

"E-eh? What do you mean, 'why'?"

"Why do you like me?" He rephrased.

"I, I don't know- we're in the same class, you can draw very well, and you're cute-" she blushed and swayed as she spoke, "- and, and, well... that's it I think."

Haruka sighed. "Exactly. I'm definitely not an expert on these types of things, but even I know that this is an infatuation and nothing more. It wouldn't make sense for me to reject or accept something that's not real." He pulled his bag tighter to his body. "I have to go now. It's fine, just forget about what you said Enomoto-san, and I'll forget too."

Takane gaped in indignation. "Hey! You can't just say that like you know how I feel! So what if it's just a crush, it's real to me!"

"Really?" Haruka looked back at her and- _wait_ was that a small smirk forming on his lips?! "I bet you'll feel different in a year, maybe even by next week."

"Will not!" Her hands clenched her elbows as she crossed them. "I bet that I'll feel the exact same way next week, by next year too!"

"No way."

" _Yes way!_ "

Haruka's smirk slipped from his features and he looked at her seriously. "You... are really determined with this aren't you?"

"Yup, I am," she replied with concrete certainty, eyes keen with resolve.

Haruka's stare fell from her to the floor, his brow creased in thought. "Alright then," he said, gazing back up at her. "Let's make a deal: we wait until our second year here and we'll see if you still feel the same way about me then. If, _however unlikely_ that you still do, I'll decide whether or not I accept it. Is that fair?"

Thinking it over for a second, Takane nodded her head up and down. "Uhn! That sounds fair." _At least he didn't laugh at me like I thought._ "I can wait for a year, no problem. I'll prove you wrong for sure!" With her nerves and confidence back at ease, she ducked her head a little. "Thanks, Haruka."

"Hn, good. I'll be off now. I'll see you tomorrow Enom- _Takane_."

"See ya tomorrow," Takane waved, smiling giddily at him saying her name again. And with that, the tall boy was gone, his footsteps down the hall echoing back for her ears. Looking down at her hands, Takane gripped them on her bag strap. Walking over to the door and stepping out, she peered down the hall. Haruka was nowhere to be found.

"..."

Had it been the evening sun veiling over Takane's vision, or had Haruka genuinely smiled at her before he had left? She couldn't really see as it had been rather small.

 _Does it even matter?_ Takane thought she had seen it, so it must have been real. Even if it was only real to her.

Her own soft smile shown as brightly as the brand new feeling blooming in her chest. She turned back to look into the classroom one last time. When taking a more focused look at it, turns out it wasn't that small in comparison to the other rooms at all. It was only the excess clutter and lack of attention to the room that made it feel so cramped. Starting tomorrow, Sensei had said earlier, they would clean out the room until it looked just like the other classes, maybe even better.

Takane's only remaining complaint now was still the lack of peers to spend the days with ― but even that was in the midst of fading away from her mind; she would have Haruka sitting just at her right from now until they graduated. She would make it work.

 _Today turned out great after all, so I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be just as good. Amazing high school life, here I come._


	2. A Day Spent Ta-Ta-Tara-Talking To You

**Chapter 2: A Day Spent Ta-Ta-Tara-Talking To You**

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 **Wahhh! Sorry for this update coming later than the previous ones!**

 **Summer has sadly ended and now that school has started up again, there's been less time to write DX**

 **Don't worry, though; I haven't been thinking less of these fics for a single second. This Touketsu train won't be stopped anytime soon XD**

 **Thanks for all the new reviews and questions! I'm glad people are catching on quickly and honestly thinking about these simple stories :D**

 **So as to not spoil anything, I'll just say this: for every one of your questions and concerns, I've planned them all out already.** ** _Every single one_** **)**

 **Without further ado, please enjoy this chapter and I hope the reviews keep coming in~ X3**

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 _Some months later._

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Soon enough, another certain day broke unto the world.

With the chirping, twittering sounds of birds in the wind, the air was cleanly crisp and filled up lungs delicately, making every breath one of satisfaction.

Sunny skies were up above and beyond, splashed onto the heavens like the deepest blue paint and the clouds were so white that they could very well just be fluffy spots of pure canvas peeking through.

People were smiling everywhere, happy and laughing without any cares in the world at all. One by one, their smiles kept on shouting 'yay, it's Monday!' over and over with no sign of stopping.

It was all so cheerfully bright and cheerfully loud and cheerfully _irritating,_ not that anyone but Haruka seemed to see it.

 _Tch, isn't it supposed to be autumn right now?_ he thought peevishly as he walked off of the bus chock full of freakishly gleeful people. _There's no reason for it to still be this warm._

The instant he stepped onto the pavement, the hot beams from the sun began their attack. Haruka pulled his light-green cardigan snugger to his body in hopes of blocking out the rays that were trying slip through the fabric to scorch his pale skin. ( _"Always keep yourself covered Haru, it's what's best to keep someone like you from getting sunburned,"_ his father always said.)

Setting off on his way to the school building in the same direction as a growing crowd of gathering students, Haruka did his best to stay behind and out of sight, sticking to the shade of the trees instead of out in the boilingly evil sun. Whenever a person seemed to be getting too close, he unconsciously took a step to the side.

Under no circumstances was he walking _with_ them, after all. During the early days of the year, there had been a few times where he actually had to resort to glaring to get that point across. Although nowadays, it was rather contenting to find that a couple of months worth of distancing himself finally seemed to be paying off.

Alone with only his thoughts, Haruka could quite readily admit that the heated and painstakingly familiar trek to school (whose gates were just _almost_ within the reach of his already fatigued feet) was actually quite pleasant. The skin-searing sunshine was coloring the sidewalk a warm golden color and the leaves of the trees he was under were flashing a vivid, blazing green - another staple to how un-autumn it was.

Looking back at the sun dancing over the foliage as he stepped onto the high school campus, Haruka was already half-way done drawing the pretty scenery in his mind; with plans to start the line-art of the picture already forming...

" _Haruka!_ " banged a sharp, lively voice out of literally nowhere, shocking him out of his colorful daydream. "Hey, over here! Haruka! Hey, Harukaaa!"

Successfully rattled, Haruka had to take a moment to calm down the frazzled beat of his heart - although thankfully, very _very_ thankfully not for the usual reason that it would be beating so erratically - to a more composed pace before stepping out into the sunlight once and for all, grimacing to the very depths of his soul.

 _She's coming in fast, I give it about ten- no eight seconds. What's the game plan?_

As the seconds started to trickle themselves down, Haruka briefly, yet no less critically, scanned the area for any chance that he might be able to evade his only classmate as she began making her way towards him.

 _Duck back into the trees? Blend into the crowd? Get on a bus back headed home?_

 _"_ Haruka? _"_

Just as he was deciding on one of the options ‒ there she was right in front of him, the tell-tale grin on a short raven-haired girl blaring out thunderously. It seemed that his legs had malfunctioned and failed under him; he hadn't even moved for all those eight seconds and had just stood there watching her twin-tails bounce up and down while she had skipped over.

No, that would be absurd. Ridiculous. Maybe his calculation was wrong and it had really been four seconds? Or maybe she had just teleported when he made the mistake of blinking? Both of them were better explanations.

"Good morning!" the peppy girl greeted him, stepping over to his side so they could resume what used to be Haruka's solo walk to school. He rolled his eyes just so he wouldn't have to look into hers; her features were so bright (not helped at all by the sun) that he was sure he'd go blind and trip over something.

"Good morning, Takane," he replied back simply, a tired but accepting huff of breath escaping as he knew, like he knew every day, that there was no escaping his personal talking hurricane, and resigned himself to his troublesome fate once again.

 _Let today's onslaught of earsplitting aggravation begin._

She didn't take very long to get started. "Hehe, look who has bed head," she pointed out as their legs began to move at the same pace Haruka had been walking ('snail-like' according to her. 'Safe' according to his father.) Reaching up to touch his so-called messy hair, Haruka speedily sent a hand to block her futile attempt.

"Awww come on, is that a new style or were you rushing to come to school this morning?"

He could practically taste the ' _and see me?_ ' she left out. Worse yet, the cheeky, almost innocent sideways smile she was now showing off had transferred the sun rays onto his own face, warming him up a few extra degrees. He really did hate the sun. And cheeky people.

Soon enough, an infuriating (yet all too familiar) prickle was crawling down his back, sprawling out to his elbows and knees, all the way into his wrists, right on schedule.

"Look who has bags under their eyes. Were you up playing video games all night again, or are they pasted under there permanently?"

The way her coy tone slipped off like a flimsy costume was magnificent (" _V_ _-video games, video games of course!"_ ); the way her twin-tails seemed to spike up on their own accord always a delight. Almost made him want to snap a picture for drawing reference so he could capture such perfect scene on paper later.

"It's not my fault you know, the latest version of Dead Bullet just came out yesterday. I had to get started as soon as possible."

"Aren't you completely awful at that game?"

"H-hey, I'm not that bad! 'Flash Dancer Ene' here's already ranked 20000th in the country!"

"That _doesn't_ mean 'awful' to you?"

"C-can we just get to class already?!"

"That's my line, _noisy_."

"Hmmmpph."

With puffed out enflamed cheeks, Takane marched ahead of him crossly. All of the sudden, Haruka wasn't feeling as irritated as he had been until then. Amused, even.

However... he couldn't get the prickling sensation squirming under his fingernails nor the voice whispering in his head out, no matter how he scratched and rebuked.

 _This feeling..._

That _is not why. I_ _ **swear**_ _._

* * *

Thankfully, the feeling had settled down by the time noon had passed, banished right to the pit of his stomach. (His nearly empty stomach: the specially prepared, medicated food his father made him every day wasn't very filling, he lamented. It always left a seed of regret when he had to decline Takane every time she offered him lunch, even something as simple as rice balls.)

He was able to focus on more important things now. Like the only other thing more maddening than Takane's pitiful attempts at flirting: her _constant_ obnoxious yawning.

Haruka himself really didn't know why he was so aware of it, but after the fourth yawn under the same minute, he couldn't fight the urge to keep it to himself any longer.

"Listen Takane, if you're going to keep yawning like that, could you at least do it on the other side of the room?" He turned brusquely while grasping his un-snapped (for now) pencil tightly. "I'd like to finish this math as soon and as stress-freely as possible."

"E-eh? Well, excuse me," Takane countered mid-fifth-yawn. "It's not my fault, narcolepsy remember?"

"I do, and I'd even fall for that excuse too if it wasn't for the all-nighter you pulled, which you are indeed responsible for." He wasn't backing down from this, not that he had a tendency to ever back down. "If you don't want to be called out for it, don't stay up so late. It's unhealthy anyway, most especially for you."

Takane's twin-tails sagged down and disappeared behind her shoulders. "Haaah, you sound just like Granny. Fine, fine sorry. I'll try not to yawn." Pressing against her cheeks as if trying to slap the sleepiness to a pulp, she turned back to her own homework and slipped her headphones on before she could hear Haruka's satisfied "Good."

Several minutes passed without a single yawn, and satisfaction coursed through Haruka, although _now_ he had to ignore Takane quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) humming along to whatever she was listening to. _Still better than before._ He glanced at her from the corner of his eye and watched her head wave back and forth slightly. The thought of reaching over to lift an earpad up to find out what the song was crossed his mind exactly once before being promptly squashed on.

(Good timing too. He could sense the dormant _feeling_ trying to crawl back up and out of his stomach.)

Soon enough, Haruka was finished all the questions their sensei had assigned them before the principal had called her to the office out of nowhere. Takane seemed to be having a much harder time, however, as proven by the eraser flying up and down her page along with the frustrated way she was beating the melody of her music on her desk with a pencil.

 _Ditz_ , Haruka thought as he gazed at the poor girl seated at the only other desk in the room. _I wanted to get started on that scenery, but maybe I should go over and help her out..._

For anyone's future record, that had been his plan. Honestly, it had. His foot was propped up ready to stand and get her attention and everything. But...

 _The lighting above her's pretty good_ , he was suddenly thinking, his pencil suddenly twirling in his hand, a blank sheet of sketch paper suddenly in front of him. _A sketch or two won't hurt_ , he rationalized as graphite began it's dance across a fresh page, _just to practice anatomy._

He was familiar enough with this craft that he didn't even need to look at the paper, unlidded eyes casually traveling through every stray strand bunched into the elastics tied around her hair. Not a single line escaped him: the outline of her bangs, the thin of her lips curving into an out-of-habit smile, the contrasting sharp point of a pert nose; it was all captured down and locked under his hands.

 _It's not half bad, but I've done better,_ Haruka thought just a little bit proudly as the completed rough sketch of Takane with her headphones on grinned stupidly up at him. (He could mostly ignore it as he felt the feeling clawing its way into his throat.)

Just as he was about to start shading her blank eyes a shiny black, he noticed that his pencil tip had dulled down to a stub. Trying not to feel vexed, Haruka got up to sharpen it over the trashcan in a corner of the classroom, shivering slightly from the breeze blowing inside from a single open window pane. Maybe autumn _had_ finally chosen to show up.

Once the pencil end had been fully restored to its sharpened splendor, Haruka came back to his desk to resume finishing his draft. _Maybe I'll color it fully, or would it look better staying black and wh-_

...

 _-wh-where is it?!_

Sparks jolting over his skin, his hands felt positively clammy as his eyes stared at the alarmingly empty spot on the desk where it _should have been_.

 _The wind must have blown to away,_ Haruka assumed, hating the wind along with the sun now. Scanning the floor and under his desk for the third time, Haruka tried to mix in calm with the impatience and anxiety stirring within. ' _Don't overthink, don't get too riled up over little things, don't care too much,'_ was what father always said after all.

 _Maybe it was blown to the other side of the room past Taka-_

 _Takane._

The gears in his neck moved stiffly (they might as well have creaked) when he turned his head over to her desk. There she was still sitting, for once completely quiet, her headphones having been pulled down from her ears.

She was holding a suspiciously familiar-looking piece of sketch paper in her hands instead of the math work and was staring at it so intently it might as well have burst into flames.

As his horrified mind was still processing the sight in front of him, Takane whipped her head around and was now looking up him with that exact same expression.

"Haruka..." she began to say, he guessed from the movement of her lips but not from the sound. His ears had completely frozen off at that point, along with the rest of his appendages.

"Uh..."

 _Oh God,_ was his only thought as his face went pale; going completely black and white just like the sketch.

"Did you draw this just now?"

"U-uh...!"

 _OH GOD,_ was all he could hear as his paralyzed mouth gaped wide open enough for his pathetic heart to leap right out. If his disease didn't kill him one day, _this_ definitely would.

"Its..." She clutched the paper to her chest. "It's amazing _!_ "

Faster than Haruka could even detect, she shot upright and shone a lighthouse-level smile right at him. "It looks just like me! You really are a good artist. I can't believe it. Just, just... oh _Haruka~!_ "

Just like that, the _feeling_ escaped from the depths of his weak body and curled all over Haruka's skin in searingly hot, painful waves. The only bright(er) side was that the sensation finally brought him back to his senses and out from the pitiful, word-stumbling shell. Flushed all over, desperate and disregarding everything he knew, he lunged forward with more speed and force than he thought was possible for him. _If Father was here to see,_ he _would be the one having a heart attack._

"Give that back!" His reaching hand was still shaking, probably from lack of fast-paced use. Takane didn't seem to have this problem and pulled back quickly enough.

"No way! I just got to see it. Besides, it's a drawing of me isn't it?"

"That doesn't matter." This time, Haruka was successful in his attempt at swiping it away, pinching on her cheek with just enough force to distract her. _What a careless mistake, I should have never have drawn this. How will I ever live this down... She'll forget soon anyway, right? Everyone does eventually._

Clenching the paper to his front like a thousand lives depended on it, he reached for the bag hanging on the back of his chair, ready to shove the damn thing in it and out of sight forever. Like the way all of his of his art was supposed to be kept.

(Haruka was fully prepared to rip all of his fingers off and never be able to draw again if it guaranteed that Takane would never, _ever_ see the numerous sketchpads he had at home that were filled to the brim with pictures just like the one scrunching in his hand. This incident had been embarrassing enough for one lifetime.)

She seemed to have other plans, like always. "Come on Haruka! Can I at least see it one more time? I just want to get one last look-!" A persistent hand tried grasping his wrist while the other one tried tugging at the paper.

"I- I said no already!" Haruka resisted and pulled away from her feebly until he lost complete control over his already unsteady balance and fell backward. He heard Takane yelp as she was pulled right down with him.

Hitting his back on the floor with a very sore thud ( _"Agh!"_ ), the pain only grew as Takane followed suit and slammed against him ( _"W-woah!"_ )

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow that hurt," she groaned as they both cringed at the pain. The impact had been so harsh that it surprised Haruka that there hadn't been any sort of bone-snapping noise. Haruka touched the back of his head, already knowing that a bump would soon form.

"You idiot, stupid, dumb Takane, if you could've just given it to me-" Haruka began saying and was just about to give her a true biting piece of his mind, only for his mouth to snap shut once he opened his irate eyes. Orbs awake and gawking, awareness was soon flooding in like a typhoon as he sucked in a breath at their new situation. Or perhaps for want of a better word, their new position.

Dark, stupefied eyes blinked in time with his, so near that he could see his own pupils dilate in their reflection. They both breathed in haggardly, chests rising together; bodies pushed up _against_ one another.

"..."

Takane had fallen right on top of him.

(The escaped feeling evolved from waves to flames.)

 _Takane had fallen right on top of him._

" **GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF** -" Haruka bellowed hysterically, pushing her way-too-close face and body away from him while trying to scoot backward enough to get to his desk, or out of the classroom, or off the face of the earth. Any one of them would do.

"Mpph, not, mpph, until, mphhh, you let me see it again!" she protested, as obstinate as ever. Even the shoving hand he was smushing against her mouth wasn't stopping her from wiggling back forward over him to grab the picture.

Instantly he zipped the hand still hooked onto the paper as far back behind his head as it could go without snapping off. "NO."

Just as Haruka felt his arm reach it's stretching limit and the hand of the determined girl just a few inches above him was _so close_ to grazing the paper, the class door was flung open and their sensei came flying inside not a second later, sweat beading down her generic looking face.

"Takane! Haruka! I have some good and bad news! The reason the principal called me down was to inform me that we have to make an attra-"

It took a few seconds for the scene in front of her to reach her brain. Both Haruka and Takane blinked up at her mortified, the forgotten paper falling limply from Haruka's hand.

"-ction for the school festival in one week... ahhh...?"

"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE SENSEI!" Takane shrilled several octaves above what the human race was supposed to be able to sing. They were so close that it shrieked right into Haruka's ears. He gave up right then and there, crumbling under the mountainous shame and slowly covering his hands over his face. _Please tell me none of this is happening and I've simply gone crazy,_ he begged to anything and everything.

"W-we're ah, _crap_ , ah we're not-" Takane was still trying frantically to explain, although it did nothing to erase the kittenish look their teacher had developed.

"Oho, should I come back in a few minutes? Ahaha, I wouldn't want to ruin your joys of youth after all-"

"YOU'RE WRONG, WRONG! WAIT WAIT WAIT-" out hurled her blurry hands as she shot up to go stop their teacher from closing the door. The moment the panicking girl (who was no longer pressed up against him, _thank every deity)_ rose up off of him, Haruka picked up the godforsaken paper and scrunched it into a twisted little ball, tossing it into the trashcan to die.

 _This girl_ , he realized while clasping at his painfully throbbing heart and trying to press the wayward feeling back inside from everywhere it had been scattered and almost seen, _really is the absolute worst._

* * *

"HAHAHAHA, that seriously happened?"

"Unfortunately, yup," Takane said as the brown-haired woman sitting at the desk in front of them laughed her head, arms, and legs off.

"Aww man," she wiped a tear from her eye, "I really wish I could've been there to see that. Your poor, poor teacher... pfffft!"

"Don't you mean 'poor, poor' us?" Haruka raised an eyebrow. "We were the ones who were caught in a complete misunderstanding and have to suffer through the humiliation of it now."

"That makes it even funnier _, hah!"_

"Dr. Tateyama, it's not that funny! Please stop laughing," Takane pleaded, twin-tails spiraling out of control. "Can we just forget about it? It was hours ago anyway."

"Yes, **please** ," he agreed, scratching near the birthmark under his eye indignantly. The sooner both of them could forget about this little _occurrence_ , the better the entire world was. He was already lucky enough that Takane hadn't asked for the picture again after clearing things up with their sensei. Whether she was holding in her tongue due to embarrasment at what had happened or shame from the thorough verbal beatdown he had given her after the incident, he would not object.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop talking. But don't assume I won't be thinking about it all the time, every day!" she teased with a clicking tongue.

For once Takane joined him in shooting their doctor the most venomous scowl they could showcase. _Is this lady really a professional doctor?_ Haruka always ended up thinking during their visits with her, starting once the school year began.

Dr. Tateyama Ayaka had volunteered to take the both of them as patients at the request of the high school. She now handled all their appointments and checkups on behalf of the hospital she worked at. She stayed in pretty close touch with their families and often visited them during class. Haruka could admit that she was actually pretty competent at her job... _when_ she wasn't making herself out to be a completely insensitive buffoon.

At the start of each week, he and Takane were required to visit her in the nurse's office once the day was done to pick up weekly doses of their respective medicines. They were not required, however, to stay and chat with her before leaving for home, but Takane sure thought they should be.

"So then, how are you two going to go about making this attraction-booth-thing for the festival?"

"Oh, I already have it all in mind, doctor. It's going to be mind-blowing!"

"We're not doing it."

Takane's unnatural frown squirmed on top of her mouth. "For the fiftieth time, **yes** , we are!"

 _Annoying, annoying, annoying and stubborn like always,_ Haruka felt just as pissed off as those other forty-nine times. "Let me explain to once you again Takane: we have no ideas, no money, and two weeks. Even someone like you can deduce the answer to a problem as easy as that."

A black school shoe made a clacking sound onto the office floor as she stomped down. "But I _do_ have an idea. I've been telling you all day: we'll host the biggest, most epic video game tournament ever with as many games as possible!"

"I meant we have no _realistic_ ideas. There isn't enough space in the classroom for too many people, and I don't know what we'd do to keep them calm and quiet while they wait for their turn at the controls. Plus, there's only two of us; we wouldn't be able to control that many students, assuming anyone actually showed up."

Takane's cheer deflated and she fidgeted, searching and failing to find for more reasons to back her idea up.

"Why don't we just have a simple version of the tournament?" Haruka offered. "You can bring just one game instead of all of them, whichever one you want. We'll set it up in the room and just have whoever shows up play against each other. If only one person shows up at a time, they can just play against you. At the very worst, no one shows up at all, but I'm at least pretty sure that won't happen. Fair?"

Takane rubbed her arm. "I guess so... but, but that sounds so boring! The principal said that he wanted our booth to be unique 'cause we're Special Ed and all that crap, remember?"

"Too bad. I'd prefer 'boring' to 'impossible' any day of the week." He turned to Dr. Tateyama. "What do you think, ma'am?"

The woman tugged at her ponytail, twirling it around in thought. "I'll admit, Haruka's amendment does sound the most do-able. You wouldn't go wrong with a solid plan like that. Would provide decent enjoyment and blend in well with all the other booths."

"Exactly, so we'll just go with that and-"

"Buuuut - Takane's first idea does sound the most fun, honestly. I don't think I'd forget something like a giant video game tournament if I was a student at the festival, especially if I was a first year coming for the first time."

"See!" Takane jumped up. "We should do my idea, Haruka."

 _So much for thinking anyone in this room would see reason._ Haruka crossed his arms and frowned at her, his temper at its end. "Face it, Takane. Not even your obsession with video games will carry a tournament that big. Either pick something easier or tell Sensei we can't do it."

"No! There's no way we can let Sensei down like that. It's wasn't her fault that the principal changed his mind so late and didn't give her any money," Takane was quick to get up in his face and protest, but then downcasted her eyes and shifted around uncomfortably. "I don't have any other ideas, though."

Haruka paused. It was now his turn to look at the floor. "...I have an idea, actually."

"What, really?!" _Are her twin-tails actually floating?_ "Why didn't you tell me all those times I asked? Come on, let's hear it!"

"...we could hold a shooting gallery..."

Floating turned to bristling in less time than a heartbeat. " _EH_?! And you think my idea is too hard? We would actually need to build stuff and buy a fake gun and so much else if we did that!"

"W-well excuse me for seeing it on television once and thinking it was cool because that's all I have either, _"_ Haruka retorted, much more than a little flustered.

"Hhhhmmmpph, well then I-"

"Hey, now," Dr. Tateyama interjected their argument, standing up and clasping her hands together. "Why don't we compromise?"

"Huh?" they both asked, turning their heads to her in unison. "What do you mean, doctor?"

"I mean-" the woman circled around her desk, the ends of her white lab coat fluttering behind her, "-how about you host a video game shooting gallery?"

"Ha _h?"_

She gestured excitedly. "Think about it: it combines both of your ideas equally, won't be terribly expensive, and won't be too hard to control or gather participants for since we'll keep this shooting game as only a two-person-thing."

Both students stared at her and spun the idea 'round and around their minds. _It sort of makes sense, almost,_ Haruka realized. "Where would we find a free shooting gallery video game?"

"Fufufu, fear not young Kokonose-kun!" The adult flashed a self-satisfied grin, tapping on the pair of glasses clipped to the front of her lab coat that they had yet to see her wear. "Once upon a time I learned how to code from a very special someone; _I'll_ make the game for you and Enomoto-chan! You two are my absolute favorite, most precious patients after all."

While it made Haruka want to scoff in disbelief, Takane seemed to have sold onto the idea whole-heartedly. "You're serious Dr. Tateyama, you'd do that for us? Thanks so much! You're the greatest doctor ever!"

She winked pretentiously. "I am, aren't I?"

The urge to roll his eyes was really becoming hard to suppress, so Haruka didn't and let his eyes roll a full circle around. "What would the jobs for Takane and I be, then?"

"Well, I think it'd be obvious what Takane would do; she would be the one to take on the players."

"Woohoo!" Takane exclaimed and was nearly shaking from her excitement.

"You're not very good at first-person shooter games, though," he knew he needed to remind her. "Dead Bullet proves that."

"I'm 20000th in the country!"

"Exactly."

" _Haruka._ "

"That's perfectly fine, both of you can take turns playing the challengers so it'll be even," Ayaka tried to mediate.

"Yeah, no," Haruka answered passive-aggressively, earning a cry of protest from the girl at his side. "I don't play video games at all so I'd probably be worse than her."

"First of all; _**hey**_. Second; I can do it all on my own actually! I'll be practicing with Dead Bullet nonstop for the next week. Just you watch, I'll be the absolute best at it in no time."

She pointed an adamant finger at Haruka just to express her resolve even further. All his other (many, many) complaints folded back under his tongue when he saw how determined and fired up she looked. _So she really wants to do this, huh..._

"Suit yourself then."

"Are you sure, Takane? Keep your condition in mind; it could really affect you if you overwork yourself. Do you think you can manage it?" Dr. Tateyama asked seriously, sounding more like an actual doctor than she had for the entire conversation.

"Don't worry," Takane affirmed. "I've never let it bring me down before and I'll be extra careful, so please don't worry about me, you guys."

It seemed to be enough for the woman to accept. "Alright then, but I'll be making sure to check your health more often for these two weeks. Now," she turned towards Haruka, "that leaves us a question: what will Haruka do?"

"Oh! He's a really good artist, so maybe he could draw the game characters for you to animate?" Takane piped up before Haruka could even start thinking about the options himself.

"He-hey! Don't decide for me!" he demanded, embarrassed. "But, ah.. sure. Why not."

Dr. Tateyama clapped her hands together once and twice, the quick sounds echoing throughout the nurse's office. "It's settled then; I'll be the coder and you two will be the illustrator and the player. I'll get in touch with your sensei to make sure she knows what we're doing."

"As for prizes, will a couple bags of simple things like candy, chips, and soda be good enough? If we all pitch in they won't cost too much," she stated while running a finger down the side of a framed fish fossil hanging on the wall. Haruka could vaguely remember her telling them that she used to be an archaeologist or something like that in the past.

"Alright."

"Sounds awesome!"

"Excellent," Dr. Tateyama Ayaka declared with no further doubt. "Now that that's all settled, it's time to get working. We'll meet again after school tomorrow to discuss this further, okay? Not sure about you two, but I've got a family at home I need to feed, haha."

Bowing down and thanking the doctor for her support and encouragement (Takane made a much bigger show of it like always), they bid her goodbye and left the office with their pill bottles in hand.

His short, ebony-haired classmate's cheerful skip echoed down the empty hallways. "This is going to be really fun. Y'know for a second there, I was actually worried that we wouldn't find a way to pull it off, ahah. But we did, so today was definitely a win. Don't you think so?"

"I guess." Unlike her, he really _had_ thought they had no chance of accomplishing it and now that they did (or at least a guideline of what to do), it seemed a bit less impossible. "At the very least, it actually seems possible now."

"Uhn..." she muttered, almost to herself. Slowly, her jovial steps began to die down until she was normally walking, and then she stopped altogether.

"Ah-" he turned around in confusion, "-Takane?"

"Do you actually want to do this?" Her voice was clear and calm, for the first time he had heard from her that day. Her eyes bore into his steadily. "You didn't say so directly, but it really seems like you don't want to. Listen, if you truly don't want to be a part of this, I'd never force you to help; I'll gladly tell Sensei and Dr. Tateyama that we can't, and it won't be our problem anymore."

"..."

"Or I guess I could try doing this by myself, but you know better than anyone that I'd never be able to pull it off, heh."

"Takane..." His words trailed off, his eyes unblinking. Her sudden statement had left Haruka and his whole body feeling stunned. _Did_ he want to do this? The question hadn't even appeared to him until now, he had just been focused on why they wouldn't be able to do it.

 _It would mean disrupting my schedule, probably worrying Father a whole lot, and spending even more time with Takane..._

His train of thought faded as he kept looking at her, _really_ looking at her on the outside and straight into the eyes. He had read somewhere that the eyes were the windows to the soul. He wondered how Takane's soul would look like it that was true. _Just based on her eyes, it'd probably look ditzy, nosy, spacey... but most definitely strong._

Haruka found himself wanting to see it.

 _...more time with her, huh..._

His mouth was moving before he was out of his trance. "...you're wrong, I do want to do this."

Takane pursed her lips. "Are you sure? You kept complaining and saying that we couldn't and how my ideas were all bad...?"

An incredulous exhale came easily. "That's because I'm _me_ , Takane. You of all people should know how cynical I am by now. I guess I was just being even more pessimistic with this because it felt like we were being pressured to do this by the adults without any forewarning. But now that I'm really thinking about it, in all honesty, it really does sound interesting. Something worth trying out, something to make a colorful high school life, something _you_ would say, etc. etc."

"Ahh, now you're getting it!" she smiled, cordiality returning to light up her features. Haruka couldn't help a sense of a calm ease bloom as he saw it happen.

"Don't go expecting this kind of talk and action from me too often," he warned mildly. "As much as I don't want to, I really do have to monitor myself when things like this arise. You already know this, but my illness is a lot more... _limiting_ than yours is. I can't do a lot of things."

Haruka looked down at his shoes. He really didn't like bringing this topic up, hated it even and only grew to dislike it more when his words halted Takane's transformation back to her normal happy-go-lucky self, drooping her glowing image and making her look sad. It made him disgustingly sick like nothing else in the world could.

However, he didn't see her next action coming at all.

"You can't let that stop you, Haruka," Takane urged persistently with a newfound purposeful stance, grabbing one of his hands with both of hers and squeezing desperately. "I know there are things that really can't be helped but if you really want to do something, if you _need_ to do something and it's important to you, do it! Don't let anything hold you back ever, hesitance won't do you any good at all."

Staring at the small hands forcefully clamped down on his, up to the determined yet supportive vibe painted all over her face, down and up, up and down in an endless loop, Haruka had effectively lost all control and was now stumbling over his words and while trying to pick them up at the same time.

"Ah- hah, o-okay. I understand uh... y-you can let go now!"

She didn't need to be told twice and let go gently, allowing Haruka to swiftly put his hand back to his side. It only took a few internal breaths to force the growing, red _feeling_ swimming inside his tight fist to stay there and only there, even for only a little bit longer. If he didn't, he couldn't be sure that it wouldn't immediately spring up and try to drown him out from the inside.

"I'm glad you're on board then, ehehe, because now there's no going back," the fellow ravenette announced with a mischevious glint hidden in her irises. "We'll have to work night and day to get this video game shooting gallery finished and successful. That also means you can't turn down my offers of coming over to play video games anymore, 'cause I'll need you to help me practice."

"Oh, joy." The familiar use of snark-filled deadpan helped to ease Haruka's still open-ended nerves. It was countered by a joyous grin that he knew could only be generated by the unbelievable person in front of him.

"Don't you worry; I'll be right there by your side to make sure it'll be fun."

Feeling the loud warmth radiating from her washing over him, Haruka thought that maybe- _just this once_ \- that indulging her silliness wouldn't be so weary to do.

"I'm sure as well," he voiced, simultaneously giving a little, genuine smile of his own, timider than he would ever want.

 _Maybe this feeling isn't as bad as I thought._

Maybe it was okay to show this part of him from time to time, the part that felt.

 _Or maybe I'm an even bigger idiot than she is._

Even so, Haruka no longer had any complaints as he felt the bright, glowing feeling free itself from the cage in his hand, glide up through his entire body, and finally into the dark, bleak, empty cavity in his chest where a healthy heart should have been beating. It seemed to be doing a good enough job of replacing it for now.

 _Huh, how extraordinary_ , was his only thought as they both walked out of school and into the setting autumn sun.


	3. Getting In The Way Of My Own Sprinting

**Chapter 3: Getting In The Way Of My Own Sprinting**

* * *

As the heavy, glowing sun spun inch after inch throughout the sky, the two high schoolers soon found themselves at the end of their walk down to the front of the school.

"I guess I'll split off from you now," said Takane, starting to walk away from her companion.

"Uh, okay?" Haruka said back. "You're not going to wait with me?"

"Sorry, not this time!" she called as she jogged backward on the heels of her feet, hair bouncing. It was strange, she knew it too. Normally she would try to prolong the time she spent with Haruka as much as possible. There were times she actually had to fight him to let her wait for the bus alongside him. However, with all that had happened, she couldn't afford to stay today.

"I need to get a head start with practicing on Dead Bullet. The cultural festival will be here before we even know it, so we can't afford to waste any time at all!"

"Hm. That makes sense," Haruka nodded, sitting down on the seat under the bus stop. "Alright, see you tomorrow then."

"See you!" She had to yell just a bit as she was already a good few meters down the sidewalk. "It might be good to give you some time alone now anyway; you're coming over to my house to help me practice tomorrow, the next day, and the next day remember?"

Takane could see him roll his eyes and shake his head from where she was. She laughed a little, not hearing him groan but knowing for certain that he had.

She waved to him "Bye!"

He returned it calmly. "Bye."

Turning around, the twin-tailed girl made a sprint out of her jog and kept going until her friend, the bus stop, and the entire school was far out of her sight. No thoughts filled her mind other than what levels she would start on and a determined hope that she _would_ really become better in such a short amount of time.

...well, maybe just one more thought.

 _When I told Haruka that I was going home now and he asked why I wasn't going to wait, did he sound almost... disappointed when I said no? It sure sounded like he was. Or was it just me? Does he-_

"Ack!" Takane fumbled as her foot snagged on a sidewalk crack and knocked her off balance, thankfully not enough to make her fall over. Taking a second or two to regain her stance and restart her run, she had to keep from slapping herself for being so careless. _Looks like Granny was right all those times..._ she thought pitifully as she put all of her energy into barrelling down the way home.

The air blew past her chillingly as she skidded her way down familiar streets and alleyways, almost as if it wanted to push her back to the bus stop, back to Haruka. By the time she had made it to the front door of her grandparent's house, the sky had lost its golden hue and the almost summer-like warmth from earlier that morning had faded to a pale grey.

Fishing a key from her pocket, Takane looked at it for a moment as she clutched it in her hand. _Who am I kidding? I bet it was just me. Haruka's probably still mad at what happened earlier anyway._ Takane cringed as memories involving a certain drawing from earlier resurfaced and her face only burned up at the memories of what happened _right after_ came surging in as well. _How embarrassing._ _Let's hope that that never happens again._

Sighing, she slipped the thin piece of metal into the keyhole, turned it, and swung the door open in a less than graceful fashion. _It's a bad idea to get so ahead of myself anyway; I still have a lot of months to wait before next year when he'll tell me his true feelings._

Pocketing her keys along with all of her residue thoughts, Takane stepped inside. "Granny, I'm home! Granny?"

"Takane?" came an elderly voice from the depths of the spacious home. A few moments later the kimono-clad body of her grandmother hobbled out into view from down the corridor, presumably having paused from making tonight's dinner in the kitchen. "Back already?"

"Yeah, I came back without waiting with Haruka for his bus." After relocking the door she took off her shoes and walked across the tatami mat floor in her bare socks, giving her grandma a crude nod when she reached her.

"Huh." Grandmother Enomoto said, not bowing back. "I'm not used to you coming home so soon; you **always** wait with that Kokonose boy. Any particular reason you didn't today?"

Takane laughed. "Sorry Granny, I can't tell you just yet. It's a secret; a surprise project from school!"

"Hmm, so it is I see." Her granny nodded, causing a few salt-and-pepper strands that were once the color of Takane's own hair to fall out of her bun. "Well then, shouldn't you get started? It's always best to start things the very moment you can."

"I couldn't agree more." Twirling around the old woman (who she would be taller than with just one more birthday, she could _feel_ it) the girl skipped down the long corridor that led further into the house with her school bag held tightly over her shoulder. "So that's why I gotta start playing Dead Bullet right away."

Granny stumbled on nothing and spun around, aghast. "D-Dead Bullet?!" she cried.

"Yeah, it's for the project!"

 _"How will playing video games help you with a school project, Takane?!_ Don't use your studies as an excuse to waste time playing games!" she hollered down the hallway, her disbelieving words just barely grazing her granddaughter's back. "Young lady! Did you hear what I just-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard you. Don't worry Granny, you'll see! This'll all make sense in the end." Takane answered without looking around, already halfway down the hall before her grandmother could come chasing after her, running at the same speed she had used when coming home. The only time she slowed down her pace was when she started approaching one of the house's bigger rooms and skidded to a full stop when she reached it.

Opening the sliding doors and stepping inside lightly, Takane folded onto her knees and bowed down respectfully in front of the family shrine the same as she did every time she exited and re-entered the house.

"I'm home early, Gramps! Gonna do my best during practice, so wish me good luck please," she said to the picture of her late grandfather on the very top of the shrine, his cheerful smile held eternally between wooden frames. Taking a few moments of silence in order to properly honor him, Takane flipped right back around and continued her mad dash to her bedroom.

Once inside, she locked the door behind her - just so that no strict grandmas could come in and stop her training, although spirits of deceased grandpas were always welcomed - and walked deeper into her room, dodging various piles of clothes, controllers, and consoles lying on the floor and past shelves packed to the brim with video games of all kinds.

Hopping over to the other side of her bed where her desk was, Takane slipped into the chair and flexed her fingers over the keyboard on top.

"Dead Bullet -1989-!" she announced as she started her computer up and the all too familiar zombie and blood-filled loading screen appeared, her eyes gleaming with a passion she had never felt before until now. "Prepare to be conquered."

* * *

 _~A Few Days Later~_

* * *

"I can't believe you still haven't conquered that game, or like, have even gotten the least bit better at it."

"Argghhmmmph."

"What was that?"

Takane swung her head up from its frustrated smush into her desk. "I meant 'arrrrgghhmmmpppph'!"

"Nice to know," Haruka remarked casually, not looking up from the character design he was working on in his sketchpad. While Takane couldn't see it from where she was (and Haruka blocked her whenever she tried to _get up_ and see them so there was absolutely no winning at all) she would gladly bet actual money that they were awesome.

 _Unlike me,_ she wailed in her mind.

Her training wasn't going at all like how she had planned. For the past few days, no matter how many hours she spent glued to her computer screen at home or practicing on a handheld game she brought to school, she hadn't gotten any better at Dead Bullet. Even with all the effort she poured out of herself and into trying to shoot zombie after zombie, she never ever rose up from her current 20000th ranking, which perhaps now wasn't nearly as impressive as she had once fooled herself into thinking. Maybe even a little pathetic, like how she most certainly felt now.

"I really am trying my best you know, it's just, just, just..."

 _It's just because it's impossible_ , she thought and desperately wanted to say, along with _I'm a really bad gamer_ and _I'm an incredibly hopeless idiot_. But regardless of how damaged it was, her pride wouldn't allow the words to come out, however, so she swallowed them back up, simply groaning another 'aughhhhh' and banged her head upon the wood once more.

"Oh come on Takane," said Dr. Tateyama, pushing herself off of the wall she had been leaning against to walk across the room and place a sympathetic hand on her depressed patient's head. "I'm sure you're improving. Things can't be that bleak after all. Haruka been coming over to your house each day to help you out?"

Out of the corner of her (heavily eye-bagged, even more so than normal) eye, she could see that Haruka's pencil had paused from its graceful glide across the paper for a single moment, unnoticeable to anyone who wasn't her.

"...yeah, he has," she murmured and flipped her downcast head to the side, a teeny tiny smile tucked away with care. It was one of the only good things about her training-turned-failure.

For the past few days, Haruka had walked all the way home with her regardless of how taxing it was on his lithe body. He'd always stay a few hours just to watch her play, and although her results never changed, Takane treasured every moment of it. Whenever she took a rare break from her otherwise nonstop practice they would just hang out together in her room; Haruka sprawled on the floor sketching like always and Takane flopped on her bed trying to peek at said sketches like always (with the occasional Granny coming inside to bring them snacks.)

 _"I like this Kokonose boy,"_ the old lady always said once he would leave. _"You should learn from him; he's a good influence on you."_

 _"E-e-h?! ...w-well, that's good that you like him at least Granny. I like him too,"_ Takane would always mumble afterward, careful to keep the true meaning of her words a secret from her grandmother lest the ancient woman fly into an overprotective 'no-liking-boys' mode.

In the present time, Dr. Tateyama grinned and clapped her hands together. "Ah, so you mustn't be _that_ bad then Takane."

"Oh, _believe me, she is,"_ Haruka was quick to pipe up. And with that, all of Takane's previous warming emotions froze over again and her barely blooming smile shriveled up. Lunging out to give him a well-deserved indignant swat on the head, it ended up with her falling out of her chair when Haruka swiftly leaned away and dodged her attack without his drawing hand breaking stride.

Rubbing her sore fingers after catching herself on the floor with a scowl (although the constant button pressing she had done for hours on end last night probably hadn't helped), Takane didn't object but didn't thank the brown pony-tailed woman when she helped her into her seat again.

"Now now Takane, pay no mind," the woman said, trying to brush the floor dust off of the student's shoulders along with her moodiness. "I'm sure Haruka was just exaggerating."

"...no, he's not actually..." Takane muttered, keeping her glare towards the floor steady and her gripping knuckles firm.

Ayaka pulled at the sleeves of her lab coat when realizing the normally upbeat girl hadn't cheered up like normal, her laughter growing more nervous. "Ahaha, well you know as they say 'All Things Happen In Time,' right?"

"..." Takane said nothing and focused all of her energy on keeping her chagrin trapped in tight coils inside her belly. _You can do it, you can._

"So ah, you don't need to sweat it so much you know."

"..." More silence, more coiling. _Don't break, Always Sleepy Takane, don't break._

"S-seriously! It's okay Takane. Your skill level will boost up eventually."

With the utterance of that final word, Takane could no longer stand it and broke. "But that's the thing doctor!" She blurted out, finally showing the desperation embedded in her eyes as the lock on her shaking heart busted open. "We don't _have_ 'eventually'! We hardly have any time at all; the cultural festival is in only a few days and I _still_ suck at shooting games!"

Ayaka took a step back in surprise. Haruka jolted up from his drawings at long last. Good, because **oh boy** was Takane ready to talk now.

"You already have the game all coded and ready and everything! Haruka has about a gazillion awesome designs -even if he won't show me- in that book of his! Even our sensei has done her best with scraping up all the money she could and postponing all of our normal lessons so that the three of us could even be able to work on this booth all week: she's out talking with the principal to try and make things easier for us right now!"

"C-calm down Takane!" Dr. Tateyama tried to soothe her, but Takane wouldn't and paused only to take a breath. Her chest heaved as the words she had been trying so hard to actually keep to herself for once came crashing out at full force.

"And then there's me; I can't even do the one job you gave me doctor. No matter how I try- I-I'm not getting any better," she gasped out, pressing fingers over her eyelids when she felt tears of pure disappointment with herself begin to prick at the corners of her eyes. "There's no way I'll become anywhere close to a decent level that can beat other players when it's actually time for the festival."

"Takane my dear, you don't know that," she heard the distressed doctor say, wriggling away when she felt a concerned hand fall upon her shoulder. Haruka didn't say anything and Takane sure didn't want to peek out to see his probably judging expression.

" _Yes,_ I do."

" _No_ , you don't. Don't worry please, we'll find a way to make everything work out."

"How?" the anguished teen whimpered.

"We just will!" The adult assured unyieldingly, but even with her hands covering her face Takane could tell that she didn't really know either. "We'll just have to keep working and not lose hope, especially you. I mean, you were the one wanted to do this and who believed in it the most."

The raven-haired girl laughed as bitter a laugh as she could. "Yeah, and I'm also the reason we're going to end up having the most boring booth there."

Dr. Tateyama sighed, "Takane..."

"I'm the one who's letting everyone who's working hard and actually making progress down."

"T-Takane-"

"The one who's going to fail the both of you just when you're counting on me."

 _ **"TAKANE!"**_

All at once, everything inside the classroom staggered and stilled as the booming, nearly explosive voice echoed off of the walls and faded away into silence as if it hadn't existed.

Ever so slowly, Takane dropped her hands from her face to stare in shock at the one who had yelled so loud and out of nowhere.

It hadn't been Ayaka.

"You have **not** failed us," the lone person facing both of them said unrelentingly, no longer sitting idly in his chair. Standing up to his full height (much taller than their doctor, who was looking at him with just as startled an expression as Takane's), Haruka's eyes were shining fierce and strong and much different than the eyes of the quiet, sarcastic boy that had been in his place just a few minutes ago.

"Even if you lose every time you play and really are completely terrible, you haven't failed," he said. "You work harder than any of us and if it weren't for you, we wouldn't even have a plan at all and our teacher would have had to face the principal empty handed. You're the reason for all of this Takane... so don't you dare say such stupid things."

At first, Takane was so stupefied that she couldn't even blink or breathe. It wasn't long, however, before her chest started to spasm with hiccups and her eyes fluttered rapidly to keep the frustrated, flowing tears from leaking out at last.

"...b-b-but, but it was me who said that I could become the best at shooting games in no time! And that I could do it all on my own without any help. I said all those great things to you and I now can't pull it off. How is that not stupid?!" She demanded, and then accused, "And you're the one who keeps rubbing it in my face too; why are you telling me that I'm not a failure _now?_ "

Haruka tensed and his rigorous stance wavered. "I- I didn't know you were this affected by it. You kept such a happy face and never said anything so strongly until now." He hid behind his bangs and rubbed the back of his neck, ashamed. "...I'm sorry."

Takane took a moment just to look at him and process the apology, the upset from before needing its time to decline. "...I was just trying to make you guys think that everything was going as well as I wanted it to be. I didn't want to be a bother to anyone... but maybe, I guess maybe it would have been easier if I said something sooner. I'm sorry too..."

As she trailed off and looked down to the floor, eyes drying, Ayaka stepped in and placed a gentle hand on both of the teenager's shoulders.

"Are you two calm now?"

They both nodded and breathed, feeling awkward as their previous passionate dispositions simultaneously died away.

"That's good. I must say that that was quite the show; I've never really seen this type of behavior from either of you." She clapped them both on the backs good-naturedly. "Alrighty, now that everything's nice and tranquil again, what's the plan from here on out? Do you still want to be the one playing against the challengers Takane?"

Her answer was immediate and said without a doubt. "Of course I still do! Even if I'm terrible at it I still love Dead Bullet, shooting games, and all video games no matter what. It would be like going against the very order of the universe if I didn't play."

Ayaka chuckled. "Point duly noted. So then, what do you think will allow you to improve? How can we help you? Say anything at all and we'll do it."

"Thanks doctor, but I really don't know..." Takane pulled at a dark twin-tail in exasperated thought. "I've already been and practicing the moment I get home to until when I fall asleep, and that's like really reaaally late at night. Haruka can testify to that."

"I can," he nodded, returning back to his quiet, watching self. "...actually Takane, I think I might have an idea in regards to those all-nighters. They have to stop."

She gasped. "You're saying that I should play even more and stop sleeping period?! I mean like sure, my illness hasn't given me any random fainting spells or anything in a while, but I don't think even _I_ could handle that."

" _What_ \- no!" Haruka said flusteredly. "I meant you should stop playing for a day or two."

"Ooh!" Dr. Tateyama exclaimed, red sunlight glinting off of her hair clips as she jumped up a little. "That sounds like a good idea. From a professional point of view, a break from video games in general would do someone like you well Takane. What do you think?"

"..."

"Takane?"

"..."

Tilting her head to the side, Takane smiled. "...eh? I'm sorry Haruka, Dr. Tateyama, for a moment I thought I heard you two say something so crazy that I knew I must have imagined it. Can you repeat that?"

"Oh, we said you should take a day off from playing Dead Bullet, from playing any video games at all even," the woman repeated, oblivious.

Her beam turned even sweeter, to the point of being able to inflict diabetes. "One more time, pleeeeease?"

"You. Have. To. Take. A. Day. Off." Haruka stretched every syllable out as if she was deaf.

Takane just kept on grinning, grinning, grinning until- "EHHHHHHHH?! H-how will that help at all?! Wouldn't that just make my previous hours of practice worthless?" -she screeched. Both her doctor and her friend had to shield themselves from her immense level of incredibility.

"It just will," reiterated Haruka. "All this nonstop playing has drained and driven you into a hole; you need some time away from it to refresh your mind or whatever all that stuff really means." He squared his hands onto the girl's shoulders, matching his stern eyes with her taken aback ones. "It's the same with art: if you draw too often and don't save time for other things it can almost become impossible to draw at all. Take it from me. If you just take some time to rest I'll guarantee you that it'll help you."

As much as she was still reeling from the very horrific notion of going even a single day with playing some sort of video game, Takane couldn't help but acknowledge the logic in Haruka's words. Begrudgingly, of course. "Are you sure? You know me: that's gonna be hard."

"Oh I know," Haruka replied. "That's why I'm going to help you, even if it means I'll have to physically restrain you from touching the keypad."

Takane snorted, a sudden playful mood filling her up. "Good luck. Even if you spend the night when you come to my house later and hide all of the video games in my room, it would be all be for naught; I have many, maaany more hidden away that even Granny doesn't know about them."

"Well then," the pale boy remarked, a slight smirk sprawling his mouth, "It's a good thing that we won't be at your house this time around."

"...what do you mean? Where else would we go to?"

Haruka blinked at her slowly and looked as if he was just then realizing what he had said. Suddenly a blush sprung from under his skin and he dropped his hands as if her shoulders were on fire, much to Takane's confusion.

"Ah-h, w-well you know," Haruka stuttered out, a sweatdrop gliding down his forehead as his eyes circled around the room and looked at anything but her. "I just kinda meant, uh, that maybe today... instead of me coming over to your house, y-y-you could..."

"..."

"... argh, you know!"

Steadily and picking up exhilarating speed the gears and latches inside her head whirled and clicked into place. Within a millisecond Takane's mouth had morphed from a puzzled slit to a delightedly gigantic hole. "Haruka, **_are you inviting me to come to your house?!_** "

Wincing painfully and retreating into his green cardigan to hide from her sudden happiness, he was quick to bring a biting, insistent inflection into his voice. "It's only because I don't have any video games at all and there's nowhere else I can think of to go and it's not like I can just trust that you'll not be tempted to play on your own and-"

Takane didn't wait to hear the rest of it; all that she had taken from it was a giant, shining YES. Overjoyed beyond belief, she charged into her best friend, wrapping him up in a bountiful hug. "HUWAHHHH HARUKAAA!"

"Gwah! Okay okay okay I get it, you're welcome ahh-" Haruka squirmed under her arms and tried to pry her off, "-would you mind letting go? You're too close and you're squeezing waaay too tightly and hey, hey Takane are you listening? TAKANE."

Undeterred by his complaints, Takane only held on stronger and even twirled around, spinning with him and increasing his verbal dismay. She just couldn't help it; all of her previous uncertainty and troubles had melted from her mind after just a few words from her closest friend, just like that. It felt great.

"Awww, now there's the Takane we all know and love! I'm so glad you guys came to a solution all on your own," Ayaka cried out happily, joining the hug and encircling her arms around both her patients.

"DR. TATEYAMA NOT YOU TOO," Haruka whined, trapped inside a sandwich between both females. "I'm already regretting this, oh God."

Both women giggled and nuzzled him deeper. "Too bad! There are no take backs. I'm going to your house and it's going to be awesome!"

"Oh joy," sighed the poor boy, lowering his head and accepting his lamentable squishy fate with just the hint of a tired smile.

After Haruka was finally released from his loving prison, the two students and doctor spent the rest of their time before their sensei returned chatting and laughing about anything other than their festival booth for the first time in a good while.

* * *

"Aw man, I'm so excited!"

"Takane for the last time, would you mind sitting properly? Or at least, like, _stay still?_ "

"S-sorry!" Embarrassed, she peeled her face off of the window glass and climbed down from kneeling on top of her seat, sitting down like she was supposed to. Thankfully, none of the other people on the bus had given her anything but looks of amusement.

"Seriously," huffed Haruka beside her, perfectly motionless in his own seat. "It's like this is the first time you've ever ridden a bus."

"Don't be mean Haruka, of course I've ridden these before. Many times too; on field trips for example!" Takane returned her gaze to outside the window, following the outlines of buildings and lessening trees as the vehicle full of people drove further away from the city's more rural area. Further away from Takane's home.

"But I guess it doesn't really count: I usually just fell asleep until my class got to wherever we were going." The darkening yellow to red horizon lit up her eyes as she looked on and on, a bud of glee and wonder blossoming. It had only been a few days yet the sky was already getting darker quicker and warm colors of all kinds were starting to weave their patterns into the tree leaves.

 _This year's autumn is a late bloomer, huh._ "That's why I want to stay awake and experience this one to the fullest."

"..." Haruka didn't respond after that, and after the bus had passed by at least three blocks in counting and she still hadn't gotten one Takane tipped her head back to him.

"Anything wrong?

"...what are 'field trips'?" asked Haruka, looking completely mystified.

Takane stared at him in surprise for a moment. _Woah that's right, didn't he or maybe Dr. Tateyama say one time that because of his disease Haruka was often really sickly and missed a lot of school when he was younger?_ She scratched at her scalp in thought. _Hmm_ , _I guess it would make sense that he wouldn't be able to go on them and not know anything... but really, doesn't the term 'field trip' already say everything you need to know about what it is?_

"Um, it's when a teacher takes their class to somewhere outside of school for the day, usually to an educational place to learn about something," she explained to him nonetheless. "Sometimes they can be boring, but most of the ones I went to as a kid were pretty fun."

"Ohh, I get it now."

"Have you, eh, really never been on one?" Takane tried to ask as carefully as possible. She knew from experience that Haruka tended to shut down any questions that related too much to his health. Luckily it seemed that this one was broad enough that she was answered with an honest shake of his head.

"Hn, well maybe if we ask nicely we can convince sensei and the doctor to take us somewhere nice one day. Maybe even right after the festival as a treat for a job well done! Well-," she paused, her newfound casual smile faltering just a crack, "-that's assuming that your 'take a break' plan will work, though."

"Stop worrying about that will you?" Haruka's eyes were soft despite his words; he even pinched her on the cheek lighter than normal! "You said that you wouldn't play any video games for the rest of the day. That includes thinking about them and the booth. So relax; let my home be your "nice place" for tonight."

"..." It was Takane's turn not to say anything as the bus passed by another three blocks, maybe five, as her face reddened deeper than the sunset. Haruka soon followed suit, his own face looking like an actual tomato as he once again seemed to only hear his words after he had said them.

"Crap, oh God I-I didn't, I didn't mean it like that!"

"H-H-Haruka did you just s-say-"

"NO, I meant like, like, y-you know Takane, I uh, augh- **LOOK OUR STOP IS HERE LET'S GO.** "

Yanking her out of her seat with a lot more strength one would expect from such a frail looking boy, he pulled her off of the bus. Once standing on the sidewalk, Haruka almost immediately began walking. "Come on, let's not be late,"

"U-uhn," Takane uttered, still too stunned (and also maybe just the teeny-tiniest bit thrilled) to protest his sudden roughness as she hurried behind him. Only after a few minutes of walking did she pipe up again. "So ah, where are we going? You said we were going to your home but there are no houses around this area."

"That's because I live in an apartment complex."

"Oh! I see," Takane said, peering up at the big steel buildings all around them in hopes of somehow recognizing the one Haruka lived in.

They stopped in front of one of the shorter, smaller ones. It was colored a rich light brown instead of a cold silver like the ones around it and they stepped inside without the use of a key much to her amazement. Peering around curiously at the interior, it _almost_ looked like a place where people actually lived in, at least in Takane's sheltered opinion.

Before she could ask Haruka what floor he lived on, what number his door was, how they'd even get up there or really just how this entire apartment business worked, a man walked up to them.

He was sporting a lab coat almost exactly like Dr. Tateyama's and jet black hair with only a few graying strands, but that wasn't all. To Takane's astonishment, he looked a lot -no almost identical to Haruka, like an older version of him albeit without a birthmark under either of his eyes.

The stranger smiled at the both of them. "Right on time you two."

"Hello there Father," Haruka said simply, not moving when the man ( _ohmygosh his dad his dad his dad!_ ) immediately took his school bag from him. "I didn't think you'd be down here waiting."

"Well, I had to make sure you got home safely of course," he warmly said. He then turned and held up an outstretched hand to Takane who was still reeling from the (probably obvious) discovery she had just made. "You must be Enomoto Takane-chan. My son called earlier and told me you'd be accompanying him home today, and also that it's been your house that he's been visiting these past few days. It's very nice to meet you."

"It-it's very nice to meet you too, Kokonose-san," the nervous girl greeted back, almost forgetting to shake his hand in return.

The intrusive memory of her grandmother's strict saying of _"be polite, respectful, aware, mind your manners and above all_ _ **don't**_ _be a bother,"_ from when she had called earlier to inform her of where she would be going after school immediately popped into her mind, leading Takane to immediately decline when Haruka's father offered to carry her bag as well ( _"I-I can be polite and all those other things you know!"_ )

The three of them took the elevator up to where the Kokonose residence was, Mr. Kokonose cheerfully chattering and Haruka radiating waves of annoyance all the way up. Once inside, before she even had a second to really look at the small, tidy apartment or to find the place where she was to put her shoes away (apartments had those right?) Haruka grabbed her by the hand and made a beeline for a room down a short hall, presumably his bedroom.

She heard his dad behind them ask if they needed any snacks, drinks, paper, a laptop, the heat turned up, _anything at all_ , only for Haruka to brush it off with a "We're fine," without looking back (' _kinda like me and Granny sometimes, hehehe.')_

Once inside his room, Haruka shut the strangely lockless door and sighed into his hand. "Argh, he promised me that he'd stop waiting down at the lobby after school months ago..." he mumbled before turning back to her. "Sorry about my father."

"Huh?" Takane blinked at him after having gotten over her whiplash, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "I-it's okay! Ehe, what do you mean by 'sorry'? Did he do something bad I didn't see?"

"Well, no.." Haruka touched a hand to his elbow uncomfortably. "It's just that he can be pretty... overprotective at times, so to say."

"What are you talking about? Your dad's so nice! I wish **my** parents were like him and waited for me to come home from school every day right at our door."

Well, she wished her parents were _home_ at least. Ever since she could remember they were always away working overseas, both in different continents, hardly ever coming to see her. Even if she was okay with it now, she could recall how sad it made her as a child and how she would ask her grandparents again and again why her parents didn't want to be with her.

They never gave a clear, consistent answer: Granny would always stress about how Takane was better off not being raised by their good-for-nothing son and his equally useless wife, while Gramps, bless his soul, would buy her another video game just because he couldn't bear to see her cry. Even though old-fashioned Granny would always disapprove heavily, she never stopped him as it really was the only thing that could cheer up their granddaughter and distract her for the time being. By the time Takane had so many games that they completely filled up her room, she didn't really have any desire for her parents anymore.

Right now, however, seeing just how kind and invested and _in his life_ Haruka's own father seemed to be... Takane had to place a hand over her heart. _This of all places isn't the place to be thinking about this, don't be a bother_ , she knew as the feeling of abandonment she thought she had successfully buried years ago started to rise up again.

Determined to distract herself without the use video games, Takane spun in circle trying to take in the room all at once. It was a lot smaller than hers and so clean to the point of actually being scary; she quickly took off her shoes in fear of dirtying the shiny floor and fought her urge to throw her bag onto Haruka's precisely made bed like she would have in her own room with her much messier bed.

There weren't many things of decoration to be found except for a neatly lined up row of colorful sketchpads on a shelf above his desk, similar in design to the one he brought to school every day.

She picked a safe spot on the floor to sit down. "What's with the lab coat, though? Is he a doctor like Ayaka?"

"No." Haruka wrinkled his nose and walked over to the sketchpad shelf. "He's a scientist."

"Wow, that's so cool!" She said in awe, partially from genuine interest but mostly from the fact that both of her grandparents were retired even before Gramps' death, thus always leaving any prospect of a job fascinating to her (the ones her parents worked were both too vague and far away for her to ever remember.)

 _I wonder what his mom does for a living?_ she thought before remembering that she hadn't even seen Haruka's mother yet. Just as Takane was about to ask where she was, Haruka came back and sat down beside her with one of the pads in hand.

He flicked her on the forehead. "Want to see the design of your character for the game? I finished it a while ago and was planning to show you and Dr. Tateyama sometime soon, but now that you're here..."

Immediately forgetting her question, Takane couldn't stop nodding and huddled in closer to see, ecstatic that Haruka was finally letting her see his drawings after the uh (*cough cough*) 'incident'.

Haruka brought the book up to their faces and flipped to a page. Takane gasped when she saw the design.

"You like it?"

"Are you kidding? I love it Haruka! You really did draw Flash Dancer Ene! She looks just like me..."

Clad in a black top, a yellow skirt and two pistols in hand, the girl laying flat on the paper really did look like Takane, except her trademark grin looked a lot more daring and ready to shoot targets down than carefree and excited for another day at school.

Although... perhaps there few more things that were different.

"...except ah, why does she have blue hair? And those weird, metal... _things_ on her cheeks?"

"Because she looked _too much_ like you. I had to change her up a bit somehow," explained Haruka.

"Um, first of all: hey. Second: why is it wrong that she looks like me?"

"I-isn't it embarrassing to you?"

Takane shook her head stubbornly. "Nope, actually, so can't you just recolor her to look normally?"

"I already made up my mind so the design's already sealed in, too bad."

"You won't even let the slightest tweak to make Ene look a little more like an actual person?!" She complained.

"Nuh-uh," Haruka put his foot down (only figuratively; he actually only just gave her a really sharp, indignant look.) "If anything, you should be glad that I even kept your twin-tails."

" _Hmph_ ," hmphed Takane. "Fine fine, but can I see the designs of the enemy creatures too?"

"Sure thing, wait a second."

The pages fluttered as he skipped further into the book. As he finally stopped, Takane prepared herself to see the most terrifying, gruesome, gory monsters an amazing artist like Haruka could create-

"...those don't look like zombies at all."

-only to find herself staring at possibly the cutest, most adorable, most innocent marshmallow-like creatures that may have ever been drawn.

"...yeah," Haruka echoed, confused. "I thought we agreed with the doctor not to do them 'cause zombies would be too hard to animate and would probably scare younger challengers. What's the matter?"

"T-the the ones you drew are way too cute-looking! Even if they're not zombie-level horrific you have to make them just ugly enough so that people won't feel bad about shooting them!" Takane gestured all over the place in order to better convey her point.

"Ahh!? Well, excuse me for following the instructions!"

"Can't you tweak them a little and at least draw some fangs on them? I feel bad just _looking_ at this pink, fluffy blob thing."

This time Haruka actually did stomp his foot down. "No way!"

"Hgnnnnh," Takane whined.

"Why did I think showing you this was a good idea..."

"Can I at least see all your other sketchbooks too?"

"No."

"Please?"

"NO."

"Harukaaaaaaaaaa~"

" ** _Stupid, dumb, idiot, baka Takane!_** "

On and on they went, back and forth and forth and back until the sun sank all the way down behind the horizon, loving every minute of it. Or at least Takane was, but she really really really wanted to think that Haruka was as well.

She didn't stop loving it even as the night crept its way back into the world and brought the signal for Takane to leave with it. She didn't stop as she thanked Mr. Kokonose for making her stay so wonderful, not as she waited with Haruka for a bus back to her house in a funny reversal of their usual routine, as she waved him 'see you later' as the bus drove away and she spent the entire ride alone yet positively humming with happiness.

Even when she returned home she didn't stop, continuing as she said goodnight to Granny and sent a prayer up to Gramps in heaven, as she climbed up to her room and straight to bed, not thinking about video games at all for once in forever. There was no chance that she would break her promise.

 _I'll practice again tomorrow, and even if I don't become better I'll still play just because I want to,_ she thought sleepily as she laid under her bed covers and reflected on the day. It was quite ironic: she had been so eager to deem it as another failure when she first woke up but by the time she went to bed it had turned out fantastic; a day that she loved so much that she had a hard time figuring out her left from her right.

...no, wait, it wasn't actually because of the day, she realized just as her eyelids felt heavy enough to be a chore to keep open, it because of **him** that she couldn't tell left from right anymore.

"Haruka, I..." Takane whispered into the dark, unable to finish her sentence as the very sleep that defined her life whisked her away to a new world where it was next year already and it was he who finished the 'love you' for her.

 _For that to come true I'd do anything, oh God..._


	4. Obstacle Otou-san

**Chapter 4: Obstacle Otou-san**

* * *

 _Anything, you say...?_

Yes. Anything. Anything at all.

 _...as you wish then._

* * *

Haruka breathed softly under the blanket covers, his chest rising and falling as his mind meandered towards the end a peaceful, dreamless sleep. His body felt relaxed and tranquil as he dozed, for once, although it instinctively knew that he would soon be waking up now. Quickly enough, soft, digital _beeps_ of a nearby alarm clock buzzed into his ears and his mind stirred into consciousness. Little by little, Haruka's eyes began to flutter open.

 _Rise up already,_ a voice in the back of his head seemed to whisper before vanishing as his eyes peeked open fully, _you have something important to do today. Somewhere important to go. With someone who's very important, more so than others._

Blinking several times and turning to lie on his back, Haruka rubbed the sleep from his eyes and spent a few moments just staring at the ceiling of his room, stretching and sprawling across the mattress under the sheets. Turning his head slightly, he glanced towards the desk near his bed; a glowing _7:35_ peered back at him from the little screen of the beeping clock. Haruka looked away with a yawn, drawing out the low sound just because he could.

Had it been a school day, he would've needed to start getting ready immediately so as to not waste time. Today, though, he didn't need to be in such a rush just yet. Although judging by the events planned for today, Haruka supposed, if anything, he should be even more motivated to get ready.

It was Dr. Tateyama who had first proposed the idea: since it was the weekend right before the school's cultural festival and she had already fully completed the coding, she had invited the two students over to her house to view the shooting gallery game's final version together. While the original purpose was to simply give Takane a few hours of practice before the festival started, it had eventually evolved into somewhat of pre-party to celebrate all of their hard work over the past two weeks. While Haruka wasn't exactly sure how excited he was supposed to be, Takane had seemed ready to burst into a firework upon hearing the news. She had even taken it a step further and insisted on bringing over some food for Ayaka's family as well, not backing down no matter how much Ayaka had assured her that she didn't have to do anything in return.

 _Silly idiot,_ Haruka mused as he recalled the exchange and his mind stirred even more. Ever so slowly sitting upright, Haruka reached out to lightly tap the _off_ button on the clock and then rummaged around the desk tepidly, only stopping once his fingers fell upon a small, cylindrical object. Clenching the container while yawning some more, Haruka slipped the blanket off of his body and climbed out of bed. Clad in his sleeping clothes with his brain still feeling dazed and groggy, he swiped his phone off of the desk as well and pocketed it before making his way out of his room.

Haruka sluggishly walked down the hall, keeping his eyes closed to shield off the bright, white, pristine walls that made up his home, as they reflected sunlight extremely well, especially in the morning. It was a good thing that, right at this moment, he didn't need to see at all; he had memorized this routinely trek towards the bathroom by heart.

 _By 'heart,'_ Haruka thought lukewarmly, right as he reached the end of the hall, finally opening his eyes and grabbing the knob. _How funny._

Once inside, Haruka poured some tap water into a cup at the side of the sink and untwisted the cap of the medicine container with a brisk, but fluid motion. Pointing it upside-down and giving it a small shake, out tumbled two little gray, oblong pills right into his hand. With a count of three, they were popped into his mouth and swallowed down with a gulp of water, washing down his throat with ease. Twisting the cap back on, Haruka proceeded to carry out other normal bathroom pastimes and was back out within five minutes.

Now, a normal teenager would probably head straight to the kitchen in search of breakfast at this time, or at least that's what Haruka could guess just based on television, books, and stories that Takane had shared with him from her own life. Unfortunately for him, though, not even the simple thought of food and breakfast could so much as cross his mind, or at least not right now. A requirement of his morning medication was that he couldn't eat until exactly half an hour after taking them, regardless of how hungry he was. Just another wonderful joy of being him, truly.

Shuffling into the designated main living area, Haruka's eyes (having now adjusted to the apartment's white gleam) unconsciously began scanning around the room, lazily trying to locate someon- _ah_ , there he was, right where he usually was during mornings; seated at their eating table close to the apartment's balcony with a newly made cup of coffee placed in front of him.

With another yawn, Haruka proceeded to saunter over to the other chair at the table and sat down, facing them directly. Only a small basket containing salt, pepper, sugar, and such other condiment packets divided the two of them. As Haruka nestled into the seat cushion, he turned his gaze upwards to stare at the only other person who lived with him. His eyes were subsequently met with the faded, grayish paper and black ink.

 _Strange,_ Haruka thought, just as he always thought whenever he watched this person read the latest newspaper edition, which was large enough that it blocked his entire upper body except for the hands gripping the edges of the paper, _that a man who uses highly advanced technology on a regular basis and who's entire scientific career depends on being ahead of the times and working towards the future, still read newspapers at all._

Brushing away the familiar thought, Haruka yawned while giving a small stretch and tried to get comfortable; this was where he would be waiting out his thirty minutes until breakfast. Propping up his elbow and resting his chin in his hand, Haruka waited for the man across from him to take notice that he had sat down.

 _1, 2, 3, 4, 5,_ he mentally counted before he stopping at _6._ He watched the looming newspaper in front of him stop flipping pages and begin to tilt down. Hair popped out from behind, nearly as dark as his own except for greying at the roots. Blackish-brown eyes were now staring out at him from above the paper's upper rim, slightly magnified by a pair of thin reading glasses. Within the speed of a blink, the entire face and upper body came into full view as the newspaper was placed flat on the shiny, steel tabletop.

Haruka bowed politely. "Good morning, Father."

The older man smiled in greeting, which caused the slightest of wrinkles to form around the corners of his eyes. "Good morning, Haru. I trust you took your meds?"

 _Aaaand of course, he cuts right to the chase._

"Yes." Haruka sighed internally at both the childish nickname his father only sometimes remembered to forget, and for the unnecessary question his father _for sure_ never forgot to remember. ' Honestly, I've been taking those pills on my own every day since before I was even crayon-scribbling,' he wanted to say, yet held his tongue in.

"Good. Sleep well, I hope?"

"Yeah," Haruka murmured before yawning once more, finding it harder to shake off the last tiny pieces of drowsiness from his head than he wished. It really was a wonder how Takane was able to handle feeling this sleepy almost all of the time. _I_ _f I keep yawning like this, it'll seem like I'm the one who has narcolepsy, not her. __"_ Although I did sleep a little later than usual, I guess."

Father tilted his head a little. "I see, that's the reason then. You're usually up before your alarm rings, even on Saturdays, after all," he said somewhat too surely, almost as if he was checking off another item on a mental _Things To Ask My Son_ list in his head. It sent prickle of irritation through Haruka, although he did his best to keep his face as straight and poker as possible.

"I was beginning to consider coming inside and waking you up myself, you know. Was it because of that um, that sign-thing you were creating for the booth project?"

Haruka nodded. "I was able to finish it before ten-thirty and put it in the laundry room to dry. It looks... alright, I think. By now, it should be all done and ready for the festival. I'll check in a little while to make sure."

"Ah, well, that's good too. Good on you." Picking up the cup of coffee, his father blew on the still steaming, almost black-colored surface. However, instead of drinking it, the man only continued to talk. "Say, how were those, uh, monster and character redesigns going?"

"Hm? They went fine, I suppose. Why?"

"I remember you grumbling about them for quite a few hours some nights ago – the day when your classmate visited." Father blinked and his smile dropped some. "Wait, _w_ _ent?_ You're done with them?"

"Mm-hm," Haruka murmured, trying his best to at least half-listen. His other hand was busy absentmindedly tracing a bird outline onto the table as he saw a flock of pigeons fly passed through the balcony window. "They've been done for a while. I told you that Dr. Tateyama's already done with all the programming, don't you remember?"

Father looked at him sheepishly. "I do, I do. It's just that I was meaning to ask you specifically about them sometime earlier, but it slipped my mind. Regardless, did you end up getting your way in the end? From what I remember, you and Enomoto-chan had some sort of argument about it."

A snort escaped from Haruka's mouth before he could stop it, breaking his concentration on the invisible bird sketch. Haruka switched his gaze from the window to the cup in his dad's hand, watching as it dangled in the air precariously, nearly tilting down enough to let a drop splash down on the table. He raised a brow slightly. _Father_ _'s certainly chattier than usual this morning._

"First, don't call her '-chan.' Second, ahh, sadly, no. I'm afraid I didn't," he admitted, leaning back into the chair and reminiscing his defeat against Takane's pleas. Just like that, the previously un-moving sleepiness plaguing his mind seemed to evaporate completely, all just by thinking about her loud voice and brightly blinding features. "Unlike her actual video game skills, her ability to complain and whine is unmatched. I was forced to add pointy teeth and bat wings to the game creatures just to appease that annoying girl. Seriously, it not only slowed down the game production but, in my opinion, it just made them look even more silly and unthreatening! Unbelievable..."

Father was trying not to laugh now too. He gripped his cup harder in order not to spill any coffee and his held-in chuckles kept messing up his sympathetic expression. "Wow, I'm sorry to hear that, son." Using his free hand, Father pushed his glasses higher up on his face. "Hmm, that classmate of yours really does seem like quite the character. The type of person who fights relentlessly for what they want, I presume?"

" _Oh_ -" to this, Haruka could VERY much agree wholeheartedly, "-she definitely is Father, you have no idea. I don't know anyone more stubborn than her. And, of course, being that pesky sort of person, she wouldn't listen to reason and Dr. Tateyama ended up coding the new monsters into the game permanently so now there's no longer anything I can do about it..." he sighed. "But I didn't lose completely _,_ just mostly. I was able to convince Takane to not change anything about the character avatar I created for her; the original blue and metal Flash Dancer Ene I designed is permanently in the game as well. So, at the very least, it ended up not being a complete loss for me."

"Huh. Well, now I'm both sorry _and_ glad to hear that, aha. A semi-victory and semi-failure. Nicely done," Father said poetically. At last, he brought the cup to his mouth, but not before adding something else. "Although, even if you did end up losing those battles, I don't think I would worry or fret too much about it. If drawn by you, I'm sure that any sign, creatures, and avatar would all look very nice, regardless of any changes. Based just on your skill and talent, the game will definitely benefit from them, I guarantee."

With that, his father took the long-awaited sip... "Ahh, always much too bitter, I should probably change to a different brand of coffee grounds, heh," he cringed, Haruka watching him with wide eyes.

"I can show them to you, if you'd like, Father," Haruka blurted out, centering his gaze steadfastly on the sunlight reflecting off of the ceramic cup as it was set back down, feeling embarrassed that a simple parent's compliment on his art was enough to lift his spirits this high. Although it wasn't as much as what Takane could do to him, it was still higher than what he normally felt around other people, even his father. Or sometimes, especially his father.

"Hm? Sorry, you could what, Haru?" Father tilted his head a smidge as he reached over to the basket in between them, pulling out a packet of coffee creamer.

"I could show you the drawings I made for the game characters, both the original and the revised ones. Not now, though, but maybe later," he repeated, twiddling his thumbs awkwardly. "And only if you want, of course."

"Oh... oh!" Father gasped in realization as he finished pouring the creamy, lightly-tinted liquid into the cup, stirring the mixture with a miniature spoon taken from the basket as well. Almost immediately, the coffee's previously darkish coloring was overthrown by streaks of twirling, happy white. Father quickly brought the cup back up again to his grinning mouth, not bothering to blow on the surface this time. "I'd love to see them, Haru, thank you. Just remind me of it whenever you want to show me."

"Sure," Haruka agreed and his previous feelings of annoyance faded away only to be replaced by guilt at just how happy his father looked; smiling in between swallows of the now-sweeter coffee. He couldn't even bring himself to feel envious of how easily the man before him was able to consume sugar, especially since it was this very same man who restricted sugar and most other flavors from Haruka's own diet. _"It's for your own good,"_ the line Father always fed him automatically played in his mind. Feeling his guilt start to grow into an even bigger creature, Haruka let his thoughts wander back to the drawings, which always served as a decent distraction.

Normally (with the exceptions of Dr. Tateyama and Takane, both cases necessary for the game), he had never been comfortable enough to casually show other people his artwork, regardless of whether they were random, healthy students trying to peek into his sketchbook or even his own father trying to show genuine interest in his hobbies. The only pieces he ever allowed to be seen were the works that he was one hundred percent certain were good. Right now, though, Haruka supposed that it would be okay to let Father see these less than perfect ones for once, just for the sake of it.

 _Although, I'll still need some time to pick out the 'actually terrible' ones from the 'somewhat decent' ones to show him... ah! I know,_ Haruka thought as he watched Father's newspaper once again begin to rise up and block his face, the man seeming to have nothing left to add to their conversation, _I'll just bring some extra sketchpads with me to Dr. Tateyama's house_ _and sort through them out there later. At least it'll be something to do when I'm not helping Takane with everything._

Takane had told him she would be bringing school work to do there in between gaming, most of which was supposed to act as a sort of make-up for all of the class time they had missed in favor of working on the booth. Since he had already finished all of his make-up work, Haruka had offered any help she might need. As much as he liked to deny it, he'd be lying if he said that he hadn't grown to enjoy helping her out with the subjects she struggled in. It was one of the very reasons he had been looking forward to today.

 _That reminds me of something,_ Haruka thought. Quietly, he took out his phone from his shorts pocket even though Father typically disapproved of him using any devices this early in the morning. Although Haruka had been planning on waiting until at least after breakfast to check his phone, he was feeling more impatient than usual right now. He looked up keenly. To his luck, Father's face was now fully blocked by paper. If he did this quick enough, he could get away unadmonished. Haruka looked back down and turned the device on, doing his best to be inconspicuous.

Flipping straight to the 'Messenger' app and tapping Takane's contact name (which she had insisted on inserting herself), he felt a grin form on his lips, small enough that he didn't try to stop it. Haruka's eyes danced across the lowly lit screen and scanned every word of their last conversation from after school the day before. As he finished reading through her last message - a goodnight text followed by one of the flowery emoticons she was so fond of using - his fingers were soon tapping on the glass again and creating a new message, the phone cradled comfortably and securely in his lap.

 _To: Ene, The Dancing Flash_

 _[ Takane, I forgot to remind you this last night. Make sure you bring the extra calculus sheets that Sensei gave us to the doctor's house. There are some questions I know you'll have some trouble with and it would be smart to get them out of the way before the next quiz comes up. Sound good? ]_

 _[ Ahh, good morning as well ]_

Usually, it was Takane who texted first every day but seeing that it was the weekend and she was most likely still asleep (which was a good thing considering her narcolepsy), Haruka supposed it would be fair for him to take on that role today and leave her a message to see when she awoke. After a bit of rewording here and there, Haruka felt satisfied with the message's contents and was right on the verge of hitting SEND-

 _"Ahem._ Haruka?"

Bristling, Haruka tore his eyes off of the gadget and looked up from his lap. He turned the phone off and fumbled it back into his pocket as quickly as possible, praying Father hadn't seen. It seemed that without him having noticed at all, the newspaper had once again been put down flat on the table and was in the process of being folded up. His father's whole face peered at him, unobstructed, leaning slightly forward. The dark-haired boy leaned backward and barely avoiding sputtering, "Huh?"

 _T-that was barely two minutes!_ _Did he see what I was doing?_ For a split second, due to the curious, nearly unreadable gleam in the older man's eyes, Haruka worried that his father had indeed seen and was going to scold him. Or worse, ask to _see_ the phone and Takane's private texts by extension. A slight sweat formed on his face. "Um, yes Father?"

Luckily, however, the man only chuckled, drank more coffee and leaned backward again. "I asked you what you'd like for breakfast."

"O-oh. I'm sorry." _M_ _aybe he didn't notice._ Haruka calmed himself, hope churning inside him. "Uh, I'm not sure, I'm not that hungry right now."

"Really?" asked Father, slight surprise washing over his calm smile. "It's just, well... your stomach's been growling loud enough for the neighbors on the opposite side of the building to hear. Hadn't you noticed?"

"What?" Haruka stared down and brought a hand to his stomach- then grimaced immediately as he felt the vicious grumbling and the low yet loud _ra-ra-ra-rumble_ finally reached his ears. He  hadn't noticed. _C_ _rap,_ he thought and pressed a hand to his temple bashfully, another apology. His dad's knowing smile quirked up slightly, only adding to his son's chagrin.

"I'll take that as a no, then. Well, _I_ certainly heard it." The man rose up from the table with the now empty coffee cup in one hand and the folded up newspaper in the other. "I was even starting to get hungry myself just by listening! I started to think _'huh, we haven't had omurice in a while, perhaps we should have it today!'_ or something along those lines, at least. I'm sure that it'll make a satisfying meal, don't you think?"

Haruka strummed his fingers on the table, trying to untense them. "I guess."

Father brightened. "Great." He turned towards the kitchen, only to pause and turn back a second later. "Ah, but, if you want Haru... I can make something else instead."

Haruka blinked, feeling astonishment brush over him. Taking a moment to ponder it... "No. Omurice sounds nice, Father," he answered, not because he particularly liked omurice, just that he honestly couldn't think of any other food to suggest. _It'll taste basically the same no matter what food he makes anyway. But ah,_ _maybe I should have thought harder regardless; Father doesn't usually ask me what I'd like him to make. Nor does he start making it this early. Why is he being even more attentive than usual?_

 _"_ Alright. How much time is it until your medication settles?"

Haruka glanced at a clock on one of the white walls. "Around twenty minutes, I believe."

"Uhn. I'm sure I can whip it up before then." Father took some steps around the table and towards the kitchen, before stopping just as he reached Haruka's side. "Oh, and Haru..." Suddenly and swift enough to be downright scary, he plucked Haruka's phone from his pocket without even a hint of warning. Before the boy could even _blink_ in horror, his father was holding the device up to his face just a few inches away, a teasing glint flittering behind his glasses.

"Generally," he said, waving the phone back and forth slightly in front of Haruka's mortified eyes, "I don't like you staring at a bright screen just after waking up, with it being bad for your eyes and all... but I suppose it's alright today. I'm sure both you and Enomoto-chan have some very important things to discuss, judging by how intense you were looking just then. I'll let you get back to it, but make sure you let her know that I hope she and her grandmother are doing well and that she's welcome to visit any time she wants, alright?"

With Haruka white-faced and silent, Father put the phone down on the table surface and reached out to swat his son's forehead gently with the folded up newspaper like he had done when Haruka was still a small child. Thankfully, the feeling of being lightly bopped on the head was enough to knock him out of his gaping stupor.

" _EEEHHH_ \- I mean... I wasn't just- that...don't just... I-" Haruka sputtered most pathetically, trying to find the right, hell, _any_ words at all to defend himself. Before he could even get a single coherent sentence out, it was instantly all for naught: Father had already continued his trek towards the kitchen, leaving his son alone at the table with nothing but sheer embarrassment coursing through his veins and his face reddening into an ugly, hideous blush.

 _So he did know that I was... and instantly knew it was with her as well... ahhhh, just kill me already,_ Haruka could only think.

"...don't call her 'Enomoto-chan," he, at last, managed to grumble loud enough for Father to hear from the kitchen.

"Ohh, I understand, sorry about that," Father called back, his voice somewhat muffled as he rummaged through the refrigerator. "How about I call her 'Takane-chan,' then? Sound better?"

"FATHER!" Haruka more or less screeched, his already flame-colored face burning into an uncontrollable inferno. He twisted around in order to glare at the middle-aged man, who seemed to only grow more amused at his son's humiliation by the second. He was freely laughing now and pulling out packages of highly sanitized and vitaminized ingredients needed to make an equally sterile omurice. Placing the ingredients on the counter in the middle of the kitchen and then turning on the stove, the man made no more comment, although the remnants of a telltale knowing smirk lingered on his face.

 _Damn it all,_ Haruka inwardly fumed, a weird but utter sense of defeat simmered inside him. Even as embarrassed to the core as he was, he could do little else except feebly pick up his phone. _...h_ _e didn't take it away like he usually does when he catches me though. That wasn't much of a scolding either. Does he actually want me to text her?_

He was tempted to for a second and his thumb brushed over the screen. However, the urge to text Takane didn't feel as pressing as before and to indulge in that previous desire felt the same as giving in to Father's teasing somehow. Finally, Haruka stood up in a huff. _I'll just wait for her to text first, after all._ He bit down any aggravation and went to step back into the hallway that led to his room. _I might as well start preparing now anyway._

"Where are you going, Haru?" Father's voice called to him as he passed the kitchen, followed by the thudding sound of a knife on a cutting board. "I would've thought you'd be eager to start messaging your friend again?" he drawled ribbingly. Haruka's eyebrow twitched and he suddenly he felt a brand new pressing urge. Luckily, he was able to suppress in time and stopped himself from whipping around just to roll his eyes at his father, which would do nothing but give the man more opportunity to treat him like a child.

"Actually," Haruka replied coolly and turned to him with as much dignity as he could muster, practically willing the warmth in his face to dwindle. "I just thought that now would be a decent time to change clothes and pack my things. No use in wasting a half hour just sitting down, right? I'll just tell _Enomoto-san_ what I was going to text her in person later."

"Later?" Father echoed as he brought the knife down, cleanly slicing the onion in his grasp, the teasing tone of his voice dying away with the question. Haruka felt a smidge satisfied and straightened out his back.

"You know, at Dr. Tateyama's house later to look at the game and see if everything's set up properly for the festival."

"Oh, _that_ ," Father said as the knife went down again, although it took a bit longer to cut the next ingredient, a carrot this time. "You're going today? I was sure it was scheduled for tomorrow."

Haruka looked at him incredulously. "Dr. Tateyama called you the day she arranged the plans and also spoke to you about it in person when you came to pick me up a few days ago." _W_ _hen I specifically told you not to, mind you. Right as Takane and I started walking, the most embarrassing thing you could have done._

"Ehhh, well, Haru-"

"I also told you about it last night and every night before since then."

"A-alright, alright, I remember," Father insisted. The knife clunked down harder than before, the green and red peppers under it tearing up mercilessly. "It's just, now that I really do think about it, didn't Ayaka say that you were to go at lunchtime? There's no need to get ready right now.."

"Well, yes," Haruka muttered, combing a hand through his hair. "But it wouldn't hurt to start getting ready. I forgot to pack my bag last night and I need to bring a few textbooks, paper, practice sheets, sketchpads and such. Plus like I said, I need to actually check and see if the sign is ready at all, and even then there's always something more I could add to it before I show them." He spun around and began to head down the hallway, his mind racing and itching to get away. "So, yeah, I might as well just go do that now while you cook. Please tell me when you're done. Excuse me, Fath-"

"Wait."

Haruka stopped just as he had entered the shadow of the hall. He turned back around to see a flash of silver stop mid-way through the air just as it was about to stab into the tender flesh of frozen chicken. The knife was set it down delicately by a hand calloused from years of meticulous science work, but not gently enough to disprove that the hand hadn't been gripping it more forcefully than normal.

"Yes, Father?"

Instead of answering and meeting Haruka's eyes, his father looked down, sighed and walked around the counter in order to better face his son. "I was hoping to discuss this over a good breakfast, but I suppose it just wasn't meant to be." From where Haruka could see, the usually amiable smile the man wore looked strained instead. Forced. _Placating._

Haruka narrowed his eyes, the beginnings of a glare.

"About your plans today, Haruka..."


	5. Tongue-tied and Talkative

**Chapter 5: Tongue-tied and Talkative**

*Note: this chapter's title is an actual score from the official soundtrack (OST) of the Mekakucity Actors' anime. I thought it would fit well here. The song, Kuchibeta to Jouzetsu, is on youtube; check it out!

* * *

"Ehhhh?! He didn't want you to come to the sorta-party anymore?!"

"Yes _,"_ Haruka growled. The top of his ears burned red, no longer from embarrassment but from anger and every speed bump that the bus drove over only served to heighten his pissed off mood. Still, he did his best to keep some balance of steadiness and calm, not wanting to bring too much attention to their conversation. "He wanted me to decline her invitation at the last minute and just let you go by yourself."

"Seriously?" The sounds of the unknown food Takane was making sizzled through the background as she spoke. Her cell phone had been set to speaker mode so that she could cook/talk at the same time. It was hard to believe that not even five minutes ago, she had been laughing at Haruka when he admitted that he hadn't known that phones were capable of this function. "Didn't your dad say he was okay with it? Why did he change his mind just now?" There were no traces of this teasing left; her voice sounded genuinely concerned and confounded.

"The same reason he always does," Haruka snarled through gritted teeth. "He wanted me to stay at home rather than head out into the oh-so-scary world."

"Of suburbia? _"_ Takane spat, astonished.

"Pretty much."

"Noooo way - for real? For really real? For really, really real?"

"Really, really, _really_ real," he said grimly.

She gasped. "Three whole 'really's'... that's so paranoid. I can't believe it, I can't even imagine it."

Haruka chuckled bitterly– "I guarantee you Takane, this is something impossible to believe unless you have to live with him every day like I do," –before his voice delved back down low. "No wait, scratch that, I'm wrong. I'm no better than you. _I_ didn't believe it either. I should have known better, should have seen it coming: should have known from the very start that he hasn't changed at all."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean that he had me fooled pretty good." Haruka was still able to taste the resentful wad of bile at the back of his throat. It had accumulated the moment when Father had finally broken it to him that he was being confined to the apartment. But just as before, Haruka refused to gulp it down. "It wasn't just this morning. He's been acting more lenient and nice-like all week too, so much that I thought he'd actually let me go with no issue."

Being chattier... asking him what he wanted for breakfast... allowing him to keep texting... all those little things that Haruka had wanted to believe were acts of paternal affection... had it all just been a way to pacify him? Faking extra kindness so that getting him to comply and stay at home would be easier? More and more things had all begun to make horrible sense now.

"Haruka..."

"I let my guard down, I guess you could say. In the end, it all turned out to be a ruse. He was just doing it so I'd have something to look forward to for a little while before–" he made a clicking sound with his tongue, "–just like that, he takes it away."

Haruka balled the hand not holding up the phone into a fist. It felt like his stomach was churning as it was trying to digest all the bland eggs, rice, and lies. _It failed, though._ If anything, Father had hardened the betraying blow rather than softened it. Everything was replaying in his mind: all of the pathetic excuses and reasons put together in order to convince him to stop fighting.

 _"It's getting colder outside with autumn settling in and all. Besides, you've never been to the area where Ayaka lives and on top of that, it's awfully far away. I mean, it'd be much easier to just trust that she did a decent job on the game than go all the way over there. Remember, you're not the one who's going to be playing it anyway. I'm sure Enom- ah, your classmate can manage just fine on her own. So then, ah, considering your condition, the morning traffic, the weather and so many other things, well... oh, please just be reasonable Haru! Just listen to me for this one single time. This silly little project can't be that important, can it? Why can't you just leave it to the girl and stay home-"_

God, how he wanted to vomit.

Hair sagging over glaring eyes, he clutched the booth sign in his arms tighter so he wouldn't end up punching the wall of the bus out of frustration. At least he was sitting alone at the end of the vehicle, so no poor soul was close enough to get caught up in his brewing storm. "I actually believed that he wanted me to go enjoy myself today, but he would still rather have me be by myself and have nothing to do, just so I wouldn't run the risk of getting _mildly chilly_..." Haruka trailed off in a whisper.

The dried paint of the sign almost chipped under his clenching fingers.

"...to hell with him, honestly."

When Takane didn't answer back as quick as per normal, regret at what he had said instantly started pooling into the pit of Haruka's belly, but not for any remorse towards his father. _Crap, s_ _he probably thinks pretty bad of me now, that I'm being unreasonable and overreacting,_ he grimaced in his thoughts. _She was looking forward to today even more than you, stupid, and all you've done is whine._

Still, however guilty he was about possibly already ruining Takane's day, he couldn't bring himself to feel bad enough to apologize. Haruka slumped in his seat. _Idiot, I'm an idiot._

"Huh," he heard Takane say affectionately from the other end. "I thought that was supposed to be me."

"Ah! W-well," Haruka stammered, realizing that he had said his last thought aloud. "You're a very close second."

"Oh, I see," Takane paused mid-sentence in order to turn off the stove (or at least that's what Haruka was able to infer) and the sizzling noises died away, "Gotcha. I'm just the runner-up idiot today, then."

Easily picturing her cooing smile just by her tone, someway, somehow, in spite of himself and everything else, the ends of his mouth were beginning to twitch up into a smile too. "Yup, you're the reigning idiot champion on any other day."

"You know it⁓!" she sang. Judging from a new sound – a series of thuds – she was setting more items down on what was probably a kitchen table. "And it's this idiot that's gonna mop the floor with all the challenger's faces once the festival comes."

Haruka rolled his eyes even though he knew Takane couldn't see it. "Only if you've been getting enough sleep and taking breaks like we've been telling you to."

"I have, I have, I told you!" she insisted, no doubt flapping her arms up and down. "I went to bed at a quarter to midnight last night, not past one p.m.!"

"Go-o-osh _,_ " Haruka stretched out the word and made sure to sound as sarcastic as possible. "What a vast and strenuous improvement; an entire _forty-five_ minutes earlier. I'm in total shock at this display of such utter discipline. Simply amazing, Enomoto-dono."

"Ahhh, shut up, you," she said, sounding as if she was stirring something in a bowl rather huffily.

Haruka smirked. "Isn't that my line? Guess we really are switching places today."

"Oh _no,"_ Takane guffawed. "That'd be absolutely terrible. Imagine me being as crabby as you for a whole entire day. Eeeechhh, I'd rather drop dead."

"Hah, you only wis- wait, _crabby?"_ Haruka raised an eyebrow. "Honestly, THAT'S the best word you can think to describe me?"

"Nope! I have lots more. Let's see." She took a big inhale. "You're also fairly prickly, pretty moody, quite grumpy, tremendously grouchy, insanely growly-"

"Alright, I get it _,_ " Haruka tried to cut in, a vein throbbing at the enjoyment in her voice

"-super snappy, extremely surly, highly sulky, very testy, sometimes even downright cranky-"

" **Takane**."

"-and of course, incredibly artsy."

The slight crease in his forehead thinned out and he sighed. "Fine, I'll accept that one, but the others are just overkill."

He was met with a kittenish laugh in his ear. "Aw, don't be too upset. I'd have put a 'handsome' or a 'dashing' in there somewhere if I knew how to make them end in -y. 'Handsome-y'? 'Dashing'y? Haha, I don't know, one of them's gotta fit you. I'll find it someday."

Haruka blossomed red immediately. " _W-we-well! You should very well know that basic grammar makes it impossible to change such words into-_ "

Suddenly, Takane's grandmother called her from outside the kitchen.

"Gahhhh! Sorry, sorry. Granny wants something. Let me take care of this real quick, don't hang up yet!" she pleaded and was then gone, her footsteps stomping off and away from the phone's range.

Once alone with the silence, Haruka breathed out in relief and thanked "Granny" with all of his being. Within these last few days, for some reason he had been finding it increasingly harder to keep a cool head and not let his words turn into pure stutter whenever Takane spoke to him in such a way. It was equal parts horrifying, maddening and... actually kind of thrilling, if he were to ever allow the hidden, glowing, beating part of him that felt too damn much to have any say at all.

 _Shit, just last week I could deflect any flirting she threw at me pretty well. So how come now I... urgh, why do I even bother with this feeling anymore?_ Gazing out the window at his right, phone still held to his ear, he tried his best to not think as he waited for her to get back from whatever the old woman needed. The tall buildings of the city had disappeared a while ago and had been replaced with the considerably smaller buildings of the suburbs. Haruka leaned a bit closer to the glass to catch a better glimpse. It wouldn't be long before they reached Dr. Tateyama's neighborhood.

"Back nowwww⁓," Takane's voice was chirping back into his ear again. Her sheer volume level was enough to send a little jolt through him, which in hindsight, he really should have been used to by now. "Sorry about that, she just wanted to know if I finished all my morning chores already, and, you know, I totally did."

 _Chores, huh?_ Father never let him do anything around the apartment. A paid helper came in and did most of their cleaning every few days, and only when they were at work/school respectively. Haruka could only make guesses at what Takane's life full of housework was like. _She_ _always makes them out to be so torturous..._ "Glad you're done them."

"So," Takane kept going, "You feeling any better?"

"About what?" Haruka said quizzically.

"Your dad."

He frowned, lip curling just from the man's mere mention. "No."

Takane exhaled and sounded as if she was lifting the food ( _N_ _oodles? Soba? Udon?_ ) out of the first bowl and into somewhere else. (... ** _s_** _ **maller** bowls?)_ "Well, you can't say I didn't I try, at least. Listen Haruka, I'm not really sure what to say to help you with all this. Me and my dad aren't exactly close, you know. I only get to see him and my mom every few months if their schedules allow it, or I'm just really lucky and they feel like coming to see me."

 _Jeez, if only_ I _could be that fortunate,_ Haruka thought yet knew better than to say. Takane seemed to have a much more positive view of parents, which was surprising for someone who saw her own as rarely as she told him she did. "You've said as much before. Also, it's ' _my dad and I._ '"

"Yeah, only if you're CRABBY enough to care about grammar outside of school. Anyway, it's not like I really care about seeing them or anything. It can be good in some ways; I don't need their permission for most things, for example, and I've never needed to fight with them over anything," she said indignantly, yet was mumbling in the very next moment. "But I've also never needed to make up with them over anything either, so I don't know the first step to fixing this, fixing you and Kokonose-san. So... sorry that I can't be of better help. I really wish I could. Sorry."

"Takane..." The tension in Haruka's shoulder muscles relaxed and he felt his face soften up. "I didn't tell you all of this so that you'd be able to fix it or anything like that. That's not what I wanted at all. As of right now, I don't think I even want to make up with him." He tugged at his jacket cuffs sheepishly. "It just- it just _feels_ better to tell someone. Back then, before _you_... a-and the doctor too, of course, I didn't really have anyone to tell anything to. If anything, you've helped enough just by listening to me complain. Thank you."

"You sure?" she voiced, uncertain.

"Yeah," he reassured. "Very sure. I didn't mean to trouble you with this or stress you out. Don't concern yourself with it anymore, alright?"

"Hn... 'kay, I won't," Takane agreed and Haruka was pretty sure that she was nodding.

"B-besides! It all worked out in the end," he offered. "I'm almost at Dr. Tateyama's house right now."

"Ooohh, that's great!" she exclaimed, sounding happy again. "How much more to go?"

"A few more stops. I'll be there in ten minutes at the most."

"Wo-oah, it's not even eleven yet," Takane observed, "I give you my kudos, Mr. Punctual, but you do know that there's something called being _too_ early, right?"

"Feh, not in my book."

"Remind me never to read it then." It seemed as if she had yet again abandoned her previous task and was now doing something that sounded very similar to wrapping... something. At this point, Haruka's guessing skills had officially failed him and he had no clue as to what food she could possibly be making. "Tell me, how were you able to convince your dad to let you go in the end anyway?"

"The usual way," Haruka smiled as he recalled the glorious battle. "We talked about it until it turned into arguing, which then turned into shouting, which then turned into screaming. Ha, it's miracle that none of the other tenants came banging on our door to tell us to keep it down. Father finally gave in after about an hour – that is to say, his voice gave out by then. Afterward, I went to my room and got ready, ate whatever breakfast he actually bothered to finish making, went back to my room and didn't come back out until the ten o'clock bus arrived. All without talking to him again," he finished, triumph coursing sourly through him. "Breakfast tasted worse than normal, by the way."

The speedy crunch of the wrapping sounds slowed down a little. "...is it like that whenever you come over to my house too?"

"Hmm, not really, actually. I walk there with you, remember? Not much he can do about it if he's not there to stop me," Haruka snickered. "Even when I come home afterward, he doesn't make a big deal out of it. I think it's just because of you, though. He likes you or at the very least he approves of you."

"Awwww, if only I could get Granny to do the same."

"Huh? But I thought she didn't have any ill will towards me?" Haruka asked.

"Not you, dummy," Takane laughed. "I meant me. I wish I could get her to approve of, well, pretty much anything I do. It's like she's set her standards up on ultra, mega-hard mode and I'm barely even beaten the first level of _Basic Human Decency_ in her eyes. The end goal of becoming the 'Perfect Grandchild' is kinda impossible right now, I'm afraid."

Haruka frowned, not knowing what to say. Parent troubles were hard enough to deal with; he had no clue how to even approach _grandparent_ issues.

"Enough about that, though," she waved off. "That sounds really intense. I still don't think I can imagine it: you and him in an all-out screaming match."

"You don't want to, trust me."

"However, I do think I can relate to it a bit better. I get yelled at by Granny over stupid things too sometimes and if I'm being honest, it can get rough."

Haruka scoffed. "I'm pretty sure I'd still rather put up with Enomoto-san than with him. I can deal with all the nagging and disappointment in the world, just not with promise-breaking-bullcrap." Wincing at his own language, he fully expected Takane to make an immediate jest at his 'potty-mouth,' as she dubbed it.

However, the girl only whistled thoughtfully. "Me too."

The clanging of pots, silverware, and other kitchen utensils resonated in the background, making it sound as if she was now putting everything away and taking even more new things out as well. Haruka found that his curiosity couldn't withhold any longer. "Fine, I give. _What_ are you making?"

"A surprise." Takane recited automatically. Haruka stifled a groan.

"You're still keeping that up? It's literally the day of the, urghhh," he cringed at the word, "the 'sorta-party.'"

"Which means you should definitely be able to wait for just a little longer to find out," Takane remarked, putting what seemed to be the last item away with a _clunk._ "There. Almost done. Just one last thing to make. Don't worry about it; all you need to know is that we're gonna have a true feast later."

"Okay," Haruka chuckled, his chest feeling much clearer and lighter than it had been when he had stormed from home. Breathing was almost near easy, although there was still a significant amount of discontent weighing his lungs down, as always. _Although, it's n_ _ot like I'll be able to eat any of it..._

The bus was slowing down, arriving at the second-to-last stop before Dr. Tateyama's neighborhood.

"Looks like I'll get there even sooner than I thought," Haruka commented, pulling his bag closer to himself and preparing his legs to stand. "Do you want to keep talking or..?"

"Actuallllly, I think this might be a good time to break off," Takane grunted as if holding something heavy and/or several small things at once. Haruka gave up the guessing game entirely. "I need to - _ack-_ really focus on cooking right now. See you there soon?"

"Uhn," Haruka affirmed. "See you there soon."

"Bye-bye⁓"

"Goodby- oh wait, _wait!"_ cried Haruka, remembering something important only in that very instant. "Remember to bring the-"

The beep signaling that the other line had hung up met his eardrum before he could finish.

"-calculus sheets for later... agh." _Oh well, I tried_ , he lamented and shut off his phone. A few minutes later, the bus came to a halt and the driver at the front announced that they had reached his destination. Haruka went down the aisle and passed by the other passengers as unnoticeably as he could, offering a swift bow to the driver before he stepped off onto the grass outside. No one else exited with him and he was left by himself as the bus' doors folded shut behind him.

Now normally, Haruka didn't stay to see the bus leave; he would simply start walking to wherever he was going so as to not waste any time. But for a reason or two, today he stood where he was and kept still as he watched the bus drive out of sight. Even as he was gazing upon the now deserted road, he didn't move a muscle.

 _I made it. I really did defy him,_ he realized, taking a second to just revel in... in something.

Spite maybe.

Or satisfaction.

No, victory.

(A breeze blew against his hastily put on clothes, making the fabric wrinkle further. It ruffled the hair he had remembered to brush only during his scramble to get out the door, causing the coal tresses to fly around everywhere and blow back into tangles.)

Turning around to face the neighborhood, he started on his way towards a new world.

( _It feels good_ , Haruka noted as he finally felt.)

* * *

Throughout his whole life, home and the hospital were the only places he was allowed to frequent, with school and Takane's house being the first new additions to the list in years. Even then, Takane and her grandmother lived in a very big, traditional Japanese-styled house with no close neighbors nearby. Her home was nothing like this place, which seemed to be a blend of both his city and her rural area.

Rows and rows of houses eyed him, all built from colored brick and spaced very widely apart from each other. Most of the houses had long yards in front, with some having flowery gardens as well. There were no street signs or telephone poles or anything made of steel in sight. Instead, trees were planted all around the houses. Foliage surrounded him at every angle, and it was almost like their vividly colored leaves were swaying in the breeze for the sole purpose of reminding Haruka why autumn was his favorite season.

As mundane as he supposed this particular housing estate would be for anyone else, it was a true scene to behold for him. He could barely contain his eyes as they tried to drink it all in at once. The late morning sunlight was coating everything with a warm clarity and to his comfort, there wasn't a single person around at all to look back as he stared. No cars zoomed past to disrupt the quiet as he walked down the grey cobblestone road.

Still very much mesmerized by his surroundings, Haruka reached into his coat pocket. His mind was simultaneously painting thousands of new pictures at once and his other hand was already acting like it was grasping a pencil. He was snapped out of this artistic trance and stopped right in his tracks, however, when he found the pocket to be empty. He checked the other one, only to find nothing inside as well. _What? Isn't this the jacket I put Ayaka's note in?_ _Don't tell me I'm wearing the wrong one!_

Alas, after checking both pockets again, then his bag, then every other pocket on him, only to come up noteless after each one... this proved to be the only possible explanation. He stomped on the stone beneath him. _Dammit._

This was bad, so much so that it was hard to think he had actually felt triumphant today whilst getting ready - packing only textbooks, pencils, the sign, and one mere sketchpad (his plan to bring more had died as quickly as the false hope he had in his father) - and in his haste to leave as soon as possible, he forgot the one thing that he should have brought above all else: the paper with the directions needed to reach the house.

"I really am the idiot today," he cursed aloud.

Deciding to simply call Ayaka and either have her give him directions over the phone or ask her to pick him up from wherever he was instead, he dialed her number three times and was met with her annoyingly perky voicemail message each time before he gave up. Texting her proved to be an equally fruitless endeavor. "Why on earth isn't she responding?" Haruka cursed once more.

Out of options, he considered contacting Takane again but ultimately dismissed the idea. Half of him didn't want to interrupt her cooking focus any longer while the other half just didn't want to deal with the grief she'd give him for even being in this predicament in the first place.

 _Besides, knowing her scatterbrainedness, I'd probably just end up completely lost,_ he concluded and began to walk again, pace picked up and the sign tucked carefully under his arm. All of a sudden, the fact that there were no other people outside wasn't such a good thing. Haruka frantically looked around in search of businessmen, joggers, mothers with strollers, or any of the many kinds of people he would see on the streets when looking down from the balcony. To his ever-growing misfortune, it seemed there truly was no one out at this hour. Oh, how Haruka regretted leaving so early so much now.

 _Arugh, what would Takane do if she was in my place? What would she d-_ dear God, was he going to have to yell until people came outside and then ask them for directions? Or maybe knock on every house and ask if it was the Tateyama household? The very thought of both made Haruka's heart thump painfully (although not painful enough to make him outright panic), and he found that he'd sooner die than do either.

Fortunately, just when he decided to risk his luck and steered down a new street, he found a much better solution.

"Hey there! Excuse me, wait!" Haruka called out to the person he had just miraculously spotted amidst the buildings and flora. From the looks of it, they were heading away from the houses and into a nearby forest. Scared of losing his only chance at getting to Ayaka's house, Haruka tried to walk as fast as he could without actually running. "Please wait!"

Fortunately, he had been heard. The other person stopped walking and turned around, their face obscured by a white hoodie. Once he had caught up with them at the outskirts of the neighborhood, Haruka placed a hand on his chest and puffed in and out.

"H-hello. I'm very sorry to bother you, but do you think you could spare me a moment of your time, please?"

The person was silent for some moments, enough to make Haruka fear he would have to walk away and keep looking. Or worse, repeat himself. Thankfully though, after audibly exhaling, they pulled down their hood.

 _A boy,_ Haruka saw once their face was in full view.

A boy who looked to be a only few years younger than himself, no older than fourteen. He was quite tall for his age; his head of shaggy black hair almost came up to Haruka's nose already. The boy's skin was quite tan, to the point of looking positively sun-baked when compared to his own very pale skin. He wore a pair of brown shorts and the collar of a blueish-purple shirt peaked up over his hoodie, which itself seemed to be rather old. It's white color, which was probably very clean at once, was tattered to the point that it was probably worn quite often, perhaps even every day.

If asked to describe him based on stance and looks alone, Haruka would say that the boy seemed to be in good health and had a scruffy nature about him. All in all, he looked quite normal, albeit with one exception. _What s_ _trange eyes,_ Haruka noted as he peered into them. A pair of striking golden orbs glowered back.

"S'there something you need?" asked the boy sharply, staring him down without a hint of patience.

(Haruka wondered if those were the eyes Takane saw whenever he looked at her.)

"Yes, I do, actually. Although if you don't know, that's perfectly fine. I'll find someone else to ask. Do you know the address of-"

"Tateyama Ayaka's house is that way," he said and pointed left.

Shock crossed Haruka's face and his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Wha-what? How did you know that?"

He was ignored. "Get to the main road, it's wider than all the others, then just keep going up it. Take a right once you reach the post office and you'll get there eventually. Two stories. Red road. Red brick. Big. Can't miss it." He pulled his hood back over his head and it blocked his eyes once more, but not the small smirk he was now sporting. "Not unless you're an idiot."

Haruka, completely taken aback, was too dumbfounded to even properly feel offended.

The kid gestured crudely. "So, we done here?"

"A-aah...? I, I have no idea how you- I mean that's, _that's_ —," Haruka held his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Yes, I suppose we are. Thank you very much, uh-"

"Kousuke."

"Thank you then, Kousuke-kun. Goodbye."

"Keh." Without another word, the now-named boy turned around and started his walk into the forest again.

Haruka bowed to the other's back in farewell, unable to shake off his manners even to a stranger, _even_ to a rude one. Briefly (since an impolite child was still just a child), he considered asking where exactly he was going to in the forest or why he was headed into a forest at all, only to decide that it wasn't any of his business. Still, just as he had with the bus, Haruka watched Kousuke leave into the woods until he could no longer see him.

 _What a weird kid._ Haruka spun around and began to head in the direction that had been pointed to him. _I wonder if he lives here. He knows the place pretty well and it looks like he knows the woods around here too._ Speedwalking, he made sure to follow the directions to a tee, determined to not mess them up and lose his way. _He doesn't bear any resemblance to Dr. Tateyama... m_ _aybe he knows her and her family? Maybe he's friends with her kids_ _and they told him I was coming over?_

Eventually passing right by the small post office mentioned by Kousuke, Haruka came to a stop after nearly fifteen minutes of walking. He was now facing a big (although not as big as Takane's almost-mansion), two-story house made of bright red brick surrounded by crimson pavement, just as he was told.

Yet still... the expression on his face wasn't one of pure relief.

 _Was it just me or did Kousuke-kun's eyes flash red for an instant, just before he told me where the house was?_

Unable to conceive an explanation that didn't involve telepathy or other impossible things, Haruka forced himself to forget about it and walked up to the house's front door. Ringing the doorbell and knocking a few times for good measure, Haruka brought a brand new idea into mind: absolutely _ripping _ into Ayaka the moment she opened the door.

Hearing footsteps coming from inside, Haruka prepped himself. He heard the _clicking_ of a lock being undone and the knob thus began to turn. _Ohoho, is she in for it now._ With perfectly planned, heated words waiting on his tongue, the door opened and Haruka was _nanoseconds away from releasing it_ \- only to snap his mouth shut when he realized that the person in front of him was in fact, not Ayaka, but another young boy.

 _Uh oh._

Blinking down at him, he prayed that the child staring back up was one of Ayaka's kids ―― all the while thinking _daggers_ at a certain black-haired boy. "Um... hel-"

"Hi!" The kid stuck out a hand right up to Haruka's face. "I'm Shuuya!"

Haruka reached forward and clasped the smaller hand, whose skin tone was still darker than his but considerably paler than Kousuke's. He tried not to shake it too awkwardly. "Hello, Shuuya-kun."

With an artist's naturally critical eye, Haruka quickly deduced Shuuya to be close to Kousuke's age, though that seemed to be the only similarity between them. This boy was almost a full head shorter than the other one. Instead of a worn out hoodie, he wore space-ship patterned pajamas. Gold-colored irises had paled into lighter yellow ones. Sooty hair had been replaced by fluffy dandelion-like locks. A grumping, irate frown had given way to a bright, eager smile.

"It's nice to meet you. My name is-"

Not letting go of Haruka's hand, Shuuya pulled him right into the house. The door shut behind them with a resounding _click_. "Don't worry, I already know who you are!"

"Y-you do?" _Don't tell me this kid has strange physic powers too!_

Shuuya's blonde hair bobbed up and down as he led him through the hallway, dragging a bewildered Haruka behind him. "Big Sister talks about you all the time, hehe."

 _Big Sister?_ "Wait, wait a second please, Shuuya-kun. Did an adult tell you I was coming over today?"

"No⁓" Shuuya said, a jaunty step in his skip.

"What?" Alarms bells rang off in Haruka's head, loud enough that he wiggled his hand out of Shuuya's grip just as they entered a spacious living room. "Wait, wait, wait! Hold up. This is the Tateyama household, isn't it?"

Undeterred, Shuuya didn't stop moving and ushered him further into the room, but it might as well have been shoving due to how energetically he was pushing him. "Duh, of course. Didn't you know already?"

"Not exactl-"

"Oh, but this is your first time visiting, huh? I guess it makes sense that you want to be completely sure that she lives here. It's fine though, not to worry. I can assure you that I am for certain Tateyama Shuuya and this is where I definitely live."

Shuuya, for certain _Tateyama Shuuya ,_ motioned to the sofa. "You can put all your stuff there if you want."

"Uh, well, sure. But I still don't underst-"

"I'll go bring you a snack. Be right back!" Within a snap's time, Shuuya disappeared down a corridor, leaving Haruka with only himself and his confusion. Still stunned, he stood silently for a moment before collapsing down on the sofa.

Man, did all the kids in this area enjoy butting in before people could finish their sentences and then abruptly walk away? Or was it only the boys? Just a few seconds around Shuuya felt like being around a disorienting whirlwind, in a way that somehow felt eerily familiar. _I was definitely wrong about him and Kousuke being friends. It'd be impossible, they're total opposites._

Haruka laid his bag and the sign flat out on the couch cushions as he had been suggested. _Could this kid really be Dr. Tateyama's son? He doesn't really look like her either. He could be a nephew... Ahhh, where's that woman anyway? The adult of the home should be the one to answer the door. And above all, who's this older sister of his and why does she know me? I don't know any- OH CRAP, is he talking about the doctor?! There's no way_ _-_

"Here you go!" Shuuya came running back before his mind could fully wrap around that last alarming possibility. He thrust something into Haruka's hands. "It's chocolate pudding. Big Sister never told us if you like sweet things or not, but I hope you like it anyway."

Staring back and forth between the small, brown container he was now holding and Shuuya bouncing on the balls of his bare feet, Haruka forced his brain to settle down and at least try to keep up with the current situation.

"Thank you. Er, I'll eat this later." Meaning that he'd most likely just give it to Takane once she arrived, dishonest as it was. Any food unapproved by Father was a risk Haruka couldn't afford to take, regardless of how much he hated himself for it. He tucked the pudding cup neatly into his bag.

 _T_ _ime to get some answers._ "So you're a relative of Dr.- ah _,_ Tateyama Ayaka-san, I assume?"

"Yup!" Shuuya bubbled and plopped down on the seat next to him. "She's my mom."

Haruka instantaneously felt his chest uncoil. _So not_ _an older sibling with a twenty year age gap in between them. Phew._

"I thought so. Where's your mother now? Is she here?"

"Nope, she's at the hospital."

"She's what!" Haruka's brow furrowed. "When, _why?_ "

"Ummm, this morning and because it's her job?" Shuuya answered with a tilted head.

"Well _yeah_ , I know that," Haruka said, growing impatient. "But why exactly?"

Shuuya swung his legs back and forth. "Erm, I was still half asleep when she told us so I don't remember the full story, but I think she was called by her boss to go to a meeting or something at the last minute."

"Oh." She wasn't here at all, busy somewhere else instead. That's why she wasn't answering. Haruka wondered why he hadn't come to the idea himself the moment he noticed that the blue car she owned wasn't parked in the house's driveway. _It's better than being ignored but, agh, that woman didn't even think to notify us at all? I swear if she comes back and it turns out she forgot about us..._ "When will she be back?"

"Soon, I think," said Shuuya. "She has a good reputation at her workplace. I'm sure she'll be able to make the meeting go smoothly and come home quick."

 _'Good reputation,'_ Haruka deadpanned in his mind, _w_ _hy do I have trouble believing that. "_ Alright, but... are you here by yourself then, Shuuya-kun?" He couldn't contain his concern. As of yet, there hadn't been any sign of other people or another guardian in the house.

"Nuh-uh. My sister's upstairs." He pointed to a set of metal stairs on the other side of the hall. Puffing up his chest a bit, he added, "Besides, Mom says we're old enough to be home alone by now."

Haruka quarter-smiled. _So t_ _heir father isn't home. Lucky them._ "Is she the 'Big Sister' you were tal-"

"Hey, wait! I should totally call her down to meet you!" Shuuya cut in, looking ready to spring off of the sofa and possibly off of the walls as well.

"Th-there's no need," Haruka grabbed the kid's sleeve before he could go and run off again. "I wouldn't want to disturb anyone."

"You won't," Shuuya insisted, trying to tug free. "As Big Sister's family, it's important we introduce ourselves to you."

This was getting frustrating, maybe even infuriating. Once more, Haruka wracked his brain ten times over but still couldn't think of who this sister could possibly be or how he somehow knew her. _Is_ _he talking about Takane? But that's not possible either: she isn't here yet, she doesn't have any siblings and she's for sure not related to Dr. Tateyama._

"Really, who is thi-"

"Eehh, although I guess we could wait until Mom gets home for that," Shuuya jabbered on. "I think she's taking a shower right now anyway."

Watching the boy bring out his own pudding container from his pajama pocket, Haruka did his best to suppress the glare he was shooting at him. Not that Shuuya noticed; he was too busy peeling off the lid while still continuing to chatter.

"It's a good thing Mom went to the convenience store yesterday. We have lots of food and snacks to last for a while, and definitely enough to share with people visiting. Maybe even enough to feed the whole neighborhood and then give them all pudding for dessert! Hey, hey, hey, you know how sometimes pudding is sold as a single cup, all on its own, but then sometimes it's sold in packets of three or six or nine? Usually only in multiples of three? It's a little weird, I guess. Hmm, just based on the chocolate pudding we usually buy, I think that the brand which sells in packets of three is the best tasting! So it's obviously my favorite out of them all." He swung his head up to Haruka. "What do you think?"

 _Can this kid do **anything** except interrupt people and talk?_ That's what he thought.

"I- I have no idea?" Haruka gaped, head swimming, sweat building on his brow. "Maybe the one with the, uh, the most pudding? Nine packets? I really don't know."

Shuuya laughed; a bright, gleeful sound. "When you eat yours later, tell me what you think. It's from the one with three packets."

"O-of course."

Just when it looked like his talking had reason to cease, Shuuya replaced it with humming as he sung a small tune whilst swirling the gooey chocolate with a spoon. Haruka let out an intake of air silently, trying to soothe down. Honestly, this child's behavior was just so irksome and exasperating that he actually found himself wishing for Kousuke's brusqueness back. Still, there was also a part of him that didn't mind Shuuya's spiritedness as much as it probably should have.

"I'm surprised you came at this time." Shuuya pulled the spoon up; a generous helping of pudding came out wiggling on top. "No one around here is usually up yet. Besides us of course, and most of our neighbors don't go outside until later at least." He slipped the spoon into his mouth, still smiling.

Haruka scratched his cheek. "I took the earliest bus that I could. I figured that there wasn't any point in waiting for so long when I could just come here now." _I'm also fairly sure I'd have gone insane if I stayed at home for any longer._

"Aww, you really wanted to come and see her? That's sweet," he gushed, taking out the now empty spoon and waving it through the air like a wand. "But I think you might have come a little too early. Big Sister doesn't get home from cram school until like, _later_ later. Hours later, in fact. You knew that, right?"

Haruka knew for sure now that Takane wasn't 'Big Sister.' _E_ _ven she's not dumb enough to need to go to cram school._

"Say, listen, I really don't think we're on the same page here, Shuuya-kun," he said evenly, desperate to get to the bottom of this. "What's your older sister's nam-"

Suddenly, the spoon zipped forward. Haruka lurched backward as Shuuya pointed the silver utensil as high up towards the ceiling as he could and peered at their upside-down reflections in it.

"Ah, but when I think about it, that's okay! That just means we have even more time to talk and do other stuff before she comes home. We can play board games and puzzles, but if that's too boring we could walk around and go to all the cool places in town. There's a park nearby! And the forest is cool too! Maybe we could even go into the city. Since you're a teenager, you're old enough to go alone, right? I could just tag along with you. Though, I should probably show you around the house before any of that. Hm, I don't think Big Sister would want me to let you into her room and I definitely can't show you Mom's room or her study. How about the kitchen, or the attic? Maybe one of the closets even, Oh, oh! I could show you my room instead! _Yeah_ \- ahh, wait, wait. First things first: I have to ask you some really important questions. You up to it?"

Eyelids fluttering slowly, Haruka finally allowed himself to breathe after thoroughly suffocating under the crushing weight Shuuya's endless babble. In that very moment, all of his resolve fizzled out and he sagged against the sofa cushions, much too exhausted by the boy to care about sense anymore. He wondered if this was some sort of karma sent by Father to punish him for disobeying. _I wouldn't put it past him,_ he closed his sullen eyes and rubbed them in agitation. _Touche, old man._

"Hey, are you listening?" Shuuya gave him a little poke to the side with the spoon's hilt, cluelessly chewing more pudding.

As much as he wanted to slam his own head against the closest wall and yell until he was hoarse, Haruka found that the effort just wasn't worth it. Might as well humor this delusional kid until Ayaka or Takane or anyone else in the world came.

"Yes, I'm listening." _Please come soon,_ he silently begged. "Ask away."

"'Kay! So," Shuuya swallowed the last few remaining scoops of chocolatey goo before tossing his finished cup into a nearby trash bin and discarding the spoon onto a nearby short table, "What's your favorite food? Your favorite drink? Your favorite animal? Favorite movie? Favorite book? What do you like to do in your spare time? Do you like sports? How about video games? How are your grades? What year of school are you in? What's your favorite color? Where do you live? Have you ever dated anyone else before?"

Blinking, processing and scooting backward (Shuuya had leaned in towards him each time he had asked a question, to the point that they were practically only a few centimeters away from head-butting each other), Haruka suddenly knew exactly why he found this kid so incredibly annoying, yet still couldn't bring it in himself to get fully mad at him.

 _He's just like Takane: talkative, oblivious, cheerful_ — _damn, it all fits._

"Let's see," he began. "Anything except omurice... plain water or tea... do dinosaurs count as animals? Because I kind of like how triceratops' look... I don't really watch movies... I've read too many books to be able to choose just one... usually, I just draw, read or do schoolwork to pass time... well, for various reasons I don't to get into, I can't play sports at all, but I think baseball is fun to watch on television... hah, I'm definitely not into video games, although in a way, I do have some experience with _Dead Bullet -1989-_... I guess my grades are doing well enough right now... I'm a first year high school student, still... green, if I really had to pick only one color... near the central area of the city and..."

Haruka looked at his feet.

"No."

For the first time since Haruka had met him, Shuuya didn't reply right away and paused to reflect on the answers presented to him. "Hmm, I think that pretty much matches up with what Big Sister told us about you. Well, except the color you liked. She said it was red, not green," he echoed, placing the arch of his pointer finger over his upper lip. "I guess I must have heard wrong."

"Probably," Haruka shrugged. _I_ hope _he's just been hearing wrong and that this whole thing is one colossal misunderstanding._

Shuuya brightened. "You have something in common with our brother, though! Green is also his favorite color," he offered.

"Is that so? Cool." _A brother too. Woah, does the doctor really have this many kids?_

"You can ask him about it when he comes home. Er, well only if he comes home early today. He usually stays out late on weekends like Big Sister, although it isn't for cram school like her- at least, not exactly." Shuuya rubbed his arm. "It's usually easy to find him, but sometimes we have to drag him back home if he wants to stay out past eight like last time. Huh, you might not be able to see him, actually..."

Inwardly, Haruka felt nothing but ease. "No worries, I really don't mind. The fewer people I bother, the better. Say, though, what is his na-"

"So that's why I'm really glad you two already met earlier!"

Haruka's right eye twitched. Wh-wha- _ **what** -_ _nope, not even going_ _to try._ His new 'Let-Shuuya-Say-Whatever-Weird-Things-He-Wants-To' resolve wasn't going to break that easily, regardless of the strain on his mind and smear on his dignity.

"An-anything else to ask, Shuuya-kun?"

"Yuppp, one more. The last and most important question of all." Speaking seriously now, Shuuya's sandy eyes settled their gaze on him, scanning him up and down. To Haruka, they looked almost cat-like.

"Do you swear to always protect your family, stand by for your friends, and above all else, cherish the person you love the most forever and ever?"

"..."

(It was funny how easily his resolve broke down again in the dead silence that followed.)

' ** _What the hell are you talking about_** _,'_ Haruka wanted so,  so much to say and had to actively fight his tongue to keep from igniting the explosion on the child in front of him. _Maybe he_ _isn't Dr. Tateyama's son after all. She at least makes sense some of the goddamn time!_

"Well?"

"I, I, I-"

 _"Do you?"_

Haruka gulped. "...yes?"

"Hrmmmm," Shuuya frowned and looked at him intensely, his face radiating nothing but skepticism. Though the color hadn't changed, his eyes had taken on Kousuke's hard stare. Maybe they were friends after all. "Promise? Swear it? Are you one hundred percent sure?"

Hurriedly and very much freaked out, Haruka made the little 'X' sign over his heart, the same way Takane did whenever she made a promise. "YES. Yes, yes, I am very, very, very sure."

Releasing the intensity in his expression, Shuuya grinned jubilantly. "Great. You pass."

Haruka's mouth dropped open slightly. "Pass _what?_ "

"My test!"

" _Your test for **what**?"_

 _"_ To see if you really are a good match for Big Sister!" Shuuya proclaimed happily. He shot up from the sofa. "And I think you are."

Haruka, baffled into outright speechlessness, wasn't sure if he was even capable of questioning sense anymore. He could only look on helplessly at the obviously crazy but still completely earnest boy in front of him.

"I know she can be hard to talk to sometimes and that she doesn't always say what she means or mean what she says..." Shuuya shuffled his feet on the carpet covering the wooden floor. "These past few years have been... tough on our family and I know that she's had a lot to struggle with during them. Out of all of us, it's her who really needs someone kind and understanding to help her out. So-"

Straightening out his spine, Shuuya looked at him serenely; his cat-eyes shining with evident gratitude. "So I'm glad Big Sister Ayano has someone like you to be with her. It's really nice to meet you, Shintaro-san."

 _Ooooooookaaaaay,_ Haruka thought right as he felt something inside him completely snap, break, and then go _pop! that does it. T_ _his has gone on far enough._

Standing up from the sofa as well, Haruka squatted down so that he shared Shuuya's eye-line and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. _Refusing_ to be interrupted again, he was ready to shout over him if he had to, child or not - this charade ended NOW.

"Listen, Shuuya-kun, and I mean _listen to me_. I'm going to be as clear as I can right now. I'm really sorry to have to say this... but I have absolutely no idea what you've been talking about. At all." Haruka took in a deep breath and used the most direct voice he could muster. "That's not my name. I don't know anyone named Shintaro or anyone named Ayano. You have me mistaken for someone else."

It was, at looooong last, finally Shuuya's turn to look utterly confused...

"What do you mean? You HAVE to be him. You're Kisaragi Shintaro, my big sister's boyfriend, aren't you?"

 _"SHUUYA!"_

...and to also have himself be cut off for once.

Both of them whipped their heads around towards the new voice and their gazes fell onto a young girl standing at the top of the stairs. Grayish-brown eyes gazed back at them, pupils buzzing with alarm. The girl's face was flushed in an upset auburn color and she quickly scampered down to the bottom of the steps, causing her long, green, dripping wet hair to sway and whip out in different directions behind her.

"You're out now!" Shuuya waved to the girl. Ducking out of Haruka's grasp, he rushed over to meet her. "Look who it is! Shintaro-san came to visit us and Big Sister."

Haruka smacked his forehead. _Oh, f_ _or the love of... did he not hear me?! **I'm not** -_

"He is not Shintaro-san," the girl said, almost looking as worn down as Haruka felt. "Shuuya, I am afraid you do have it all mixed up."

" _Wha?!_ " Shuuya yelped in alarm, eyes bugging and hair flying on end. He looked almost identical to a startled kitten. "But Kousuke texted me that it was him!"

"And you took his word for it?" She crossed her arms. "Knowing that lout, he could have been bluffing and making it all up for all you know."

"But-but-but, but he did come over! He's right _here_ ," Shuuya stammered, switching his gaze between the two people rapidly. "You know that Kousuke isn't the lying type. He'd never make something like this up, and look!" He pointed at Haruka. "He matches Big Sister's description! 'Taller than her, black hair and eyes, pale-ish, scrawny and kinda weak-looking?' See, he totally matches! Just look closer and you'll see Tsubo-"

The girl, Shuuya's other sister apparently, seemed to have grown fed up by now and placed a hand right over Shuuya's mouth. Magically, that was all it took to make him completely shut up. A sense of pure amazement washed over Haruka. _Why didn't I try that earlier?_ _If only that could work with Takane, Ayaka or better yet, Father..._

"Let me handle this from here, Shuuya," she said gently before turning towards Haruka. From the looks of it, she was also near the same age as the two boys he had had both the fortunate and also unfortunate opportunity to meet, albeit on the older side. (Apparently, they did, in fact, all know each other. Haruka mentally awarded himself a point for guessing that correctly, at least at first.)

Taking some steps towards Haruka, she took a moment to smooth the wrinkles out of her pale skirt and matching blouse before properly addressing him.

"Greetings to you."

Just by her sheer and utter politeness alone, gratefulness filled Haruka up to the brim. "Hello." _Thank the heavens. Things are finally going to start clicking into place._

She dipped her head and clasped her hands together. "I apologize for any grievance my brother may have caused."

Glancing fleetingly back to Shuuya, Haruka couldn't help but feel bad for him as he saw the boy fidget a few paces behind the girl. It looked as if he was just now beginning to comprehend what was truly going on and Haruka could see his confusion turning into embarrassment right on his face.

"It's alright. Shuuya-kun has been good company." _In his own way._ Shuuya shot him a surprised look; Haruka sent him another quarter of a smile back.

"That is good to hear. Now, from what my Mum told me earlier before she had to leave, you are Kokonose Haruka-san from the school she works at?"

"Yeah. I'm him." Haruka bent down slightly to better match her line of sight. _Once again, this kid doesn't look like the doctor at all._ "And you are Tateyama-san's daughter?"

"Yes." The two deep, dark pools of calm she had for eyes not breaking contact with his own, the girl lifted the ends of her skirt and curtseyed with careful motion. No longer rattled, she held herself with a certain grace, poise and demurity that Haruka didn't often see in other adults (sometimes in his father, rarely in his teacher, and definitely not in Ayaka), let alone children.

"I am Tsubomi. Tateyama Tsubomi."


End file.
